Hello beautiful people. Rev. Matt Henry once asserted that people act themselves into a new line of thinking, more often than they think themselves into a new line of action.
Take a minute to digest that, you may need to read it again or a few times. When you have gotten a grasp of the depth, then you can proceed with the information below. This assertion couldn't be truer when we compare the quality/quantity of our listening to that of our speaking.
We spend most of our lives trying to get our ideas across, to speak, to be heard, to be able to communicate our thoughts, teach and do so much with our voices. We even take (paid) speaking lessons and rehearse our speeches to improve them.
On interpersonal level, we resort to different tactics to make certain that we are being heard. Most times we shout; other times we play victims to blackmail the intended audience into giving their attention. We may not need to do the same to increase and improve our listening, but we surely must not neglect it.
The benefits are immense.
A wise man said, "Thinking is the hardest work there is, especially when you have little or no experience to draw your solutions from." With good listening skills, you can gather the wisdom of the wise, especially from other wise people.
Listen before you speak – this goes for both people who are younger and older than you, irrespective of their age, their position, their affluence, just make sure you listen more.
Listen more than you speak – force yourself to speak less, force yourself to say less, if the other person will not say anything, wait patiently even if you have a million things to say, just try and hold yourself from speaking. You will be glad you did.
Listen to understand not to argue – try as much as possible not to argue, listen to understand the point of view or the perspective the person speaking is coming from. It will help you a lot to save your energy because if you listen before you speak, if you listen more than you speak, you will definitely listen to understand and not to argue.
Listen to improve your speaking – when you are careful to listen, you will hear people who speak better than you do say things that are important and that way, you will improve how you communicate and even use less words to say so much more.
Seek first to listen, then to be listened to – this wraps up everything about listening. Don’t always be the first to speak
