Tag: talking

Listening to others

Posted on by philipdodson
Listening by Philip Dodson
Listening by Philip Dodson

It is not about assessing when you can break into the conversation, waiting for the other person to pause for breath to jump in or thinking what you are going to say next while the other person talks.

Listening is not hearing what we think the other person is saying, as often we think we know what the person is going to say before they say it.

How often do we really listen to the other person?

How often do we stop the thing we are doing and give the person who is speaking our full attention and eye contact?

How often do we actually put our phones or tablets down while someone speaks to us?

Listening is much harder to master than talking, yet it is the only way to really be able to know what the other person is really saying and not what we think they are saying.

Talk to yourself differently

Posted on by philipdodson

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We all have this inner voice and it talks to us.

It isn’t another person in our head, it is a voice we control.

If you were asked to inspire someone else to do something great, how would you talk to them?

When was the last time the voice inside your head said ‘well done, you did a great job of that’ or ‘I’m really proud of you’ or ‘you are so good at that, wow!’ or anything similar?

Do you congratulate yourself every day for the great things you do?

Equally, we can choose to talk differently to ourselves about others and choose a generous position versus a judgemental one. After all, everyone is trying to do their best.

The voice in our head can talk differently, we just need to teach it to do so.

It’s just a habit and a choice.