THANK YOU NIKI AT The Richness of a Simple Life FOR HOSTING THIS CHALLENGE.
There were various prompts this week to help the participants exercise their kindness muscles. The prompt I chose was to listen closely to other people.
I wrote last week that truly listening to another person was a bit of a problem for me. I found myself doing all the things that make you a less than compassionate listener:
- I wanted to solve the problem.
- I was mentally preparing my response.
- I just plain zoned out on what the person was telling me.
Then to my horror, I caught myself looking over the shoulder of the person who was speaking to me in order to check out who else was in the room. YIKES!
Well, the Challenge has helped me identify a problem and I practiced listening this week with as much attention as my poor distracted mind would allow.
I can’t say that I didn’t fall into old behavior but I count this week as a win. I listened with more care and at least was aware when I started to drift off. I also found that this listening was not just a blessing and kindness to the speaker but also became a blessing for me. I found that I retained more of what was said and in certain circumstances made less mistakes due to memory loss.
Happy listening everyone,
Listening is one of those traits that really takes some practice—at least to do it well! I’m a fixer too—so it’s hard not to want to automatically think about that when listening! Good for you for working on this—it’s a constant struggle for me too!
jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
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Good post Bernadette – this is a challenge for me as well. I always feel I can listen and do other things at the same time, thinking this is productive. In reality for me it is not – giving my total attention to listening is important. I continue to work at it. Have a great day. 🙂
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It is a challenge for me too. Sometimes I think that I am listening, but in fact I am already far away with my thoughts!
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I appreciate how you are able to name what was interfering with good listening – I want to be able to name for myself how I am being a good listener or not.
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this is so special Bernadette and something for all of us to think about and work on! Thanks for sharing! xxx
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I’m starting this challenge on Monday – Thank you. – And I know that the listening is going to be a huge challenge for me because I can always tell what someone is going to say before they say it usually within the first few words that come out of their mouth. I’ve done this my whole life. I just know where it’s going. My parents both loved and I’m sure hated this.. Kudos for the win! I hope I have some wins too.
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You seem to be aware already. I am sure there will be a lot of wins ahead of you.
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Great to see you be so honest and observant about yourself! I’m good at anything involving the written word, but terrible at listening! Wish people still wrote letters!
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They do, it’s just called Email now. But seriously I agree with you. I find it much easier to attend tot he written word as opposed to the spoken.
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Listening is not easy and to do so consciously is an achievement.
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