One of Life's Most Valuable Skills:
Listening!

When I am beginning to construct my ideas for my portion of our eNewsletter, I think about many different things that I have seen, heard or have learned about from one newsletter to the next.  So, I know I always seem to say when I begin my entries “I was reading something recently…blah, blah, etc…”  But this time I really did read something that totally caught me by surprise.  Not only did it catch me, but it slapped me into an awakening and realization that…hmmm, I am not quite as skilled as I should be in this area.  This skill is one so often neglected and yet it is so critical to every facet of our lives:

Listening!

Do you ever stop to really think about how important this is?  It is truly an amazingly powerful skill!  Think about this:  Train yourself to be quiet.  Really.  Train yourself to HEAR the other person.  Don’t just rush in with your two cents.  Hear them out.  You almost need to learn how to remove yourself from the conversation and become an observer of you listening to the person speaking.

You may be intrigued when I tell you where I received this golden nugget, of what should be so obvious, too many of us, yet there are so few who realize they ARE NOT doing it well.  So, here goes, I was reading the BEST book recently (see there I go with my reflection) and it pointed out that the best listeners are none other than dogs-which by the way are my favorite of God’s creatures!  The book I read pointed out that the reason why Dog’s would be good people, is because they make the BEST listeners.  What a lesson.  They never interrupt with their own comments nor do they change the way a conversation is headed.  The quote from the book was “it’s like having a passenger in a car who suddenly grabs the steering wheel and turns you down a side street.”   That is so true right?  Think what the impact would be…and I don’t mean on the car…but from the human perspective, think about the impact to the character of the person who is speaking.  Damaging, right?  So when you put it all into perspective, dogs really are the best at listening to us.  Hey, at least I didn’t say put it into “FUR-spective”

To me just about one of the best things you can do is make someone feel like they really and truly matter in this big world.  By being the best listener it proves to the person that what they are saying matters and that THEY matter.  Making someone feel worthwhile and valued is one of the greatest gifts you can give.  If this is a quality that you can carry over into any relationship you have, whether it be your  friends, spouse, co-workers, or your boss-if you can truly produce that kind of powerful energy,  that is all anyone is really looking for.