Have you watched yourself when you’re listening to someone, especially if you’re having a spirited conversation? Are you really listening or are you just hearing the words and watching their mouth move?
If you’re not processing their information and only formulating a response, you’re engaging in negative listening.
Negative listening gets us nowhere because we’re stuck in a loop of our own ideas and information. It’s more of a presentation than a discussion.
As a result, information isn’t learned and ideas aren’t shared. This information and these ideas just might have changed your mind if you’d actually heard them.
Listening is one of the most important skills you need when interacting with your children and your spouse, partner, friends and co-workers. Yep, that’s everybody.
Observe yourself and make changes. If you’re not listening, you might be reloading with industrial-strength, damaging words.
Claudia
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