Tag: bloggers

Listening

Posted on by philipdodson

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How often do we genuinely stop, and then without thinking what we are going to say next, give 100% of our focus to the person who is speaking?

Then, how often do we pause for a moment, to digest what they have said, before replying?

Do we only hear what we think they are going to say? Simply because of the label society has put on that person. Or because we are familiar with that person and think we know everything about them.

Listening is hard, as it requires an open mind. It requires a moment of switching ourselves ‘off’.

Having an open mind, in a world that prepares us to comply with the accepted wisdom/voice of the industrialised and homogenised, has become hard.

If we all listened to what people really say, not what we are conditioned to think they say, then the world would be a different place.

If we all paused, removed the judgement and thought a bit more about what they had actually said, then the world would be a better place.

Give it a go

Posted on by philipdodson

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It’s funny how we live one life in our heads often, and then a separate one outside, in the real world.

So we have lots of thoughts, and we almost live out a dual life in our heads. When it comes to actually doing that thing out loud in the real world, we hesitate, and often just carry on with that thought in our heads.

Sometimes that’s ok, as we all at times have thoughts, that on reflection weren’t the right ones, and it is good that we do not share every single thing with the world.

But conversely, some of our very best stuff just remains in our heads, never giving a public airing. That is a shame, but it is how a good deal of life goes, for a good many people.

Imagine how many people went to their graves, perhaps with some of the greatest things that human kind could have created, and they never happened.

What a different world it could have been.

What if Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who came up with the internet, hadn’t bothered, what if Ernest Rutherford, who split the atom, hadn’t split it? What if…the list could be endless, and you are potentially the next ‘what if’ person. None of us realise what we are truly capable of and we only find out by doing it, by giving it a go and that is it.

Giving it a go, otherwise all that unused potential in all of us will go to the grave and rest there for all eternity.

Go out and try something new, something different.