26th October 2010

A nice image

This may look like just a picture of Batman fighting a shark with a light-saber, but I swear there is a point to be made. Remember those assignments I got awhile back? Well last night was another perfect opportunity to check another one off on the list. Golden Assignment III: Practice listening. Attempt to spend 2/3 of your time listening rather than speaking. This may be the assignment I need the most practice in*. Not that I don’t listen, but I will admit there are times when I could have certainly paid greater attention to what someone was saying rather than thinking about what I could say next. We spend so much time worrying about carrying a conversation that we tend to ignore the basic fundamentals of a conversation, the act of listening. Recently, a random, yet controversial topic arose with a friend after a quite delicious homemade dinner. It started out with the subject of stereotypes and soon escalated to issues of race, gender, welfare, natural rights, blah blah blah it’s not really important, the main point is that the subject matter was of things we primarily disagreed upon. You could cut the tension that was boiling up within my friend with, well, something lesser than a light-saber because that’s too easy; however, by really listening to my friend, rather than the usual raised voices and painstaking stress she was used to, there was dialogue, teaching, understanding and even laughs. By listening, my friend felt heard for a change rather than talked at, and I personally felt we grew from the situation. We had a conversation, not an argument and even though this situation could have easily turned itself into something along the lines of a light-saber wielding batman fending off a massive shark, we didn’t raise our voices once and we actually agreed on a final answer to the problem. I listened, and it was so foreign to my friend that she actually thanked me for it afterward. Don’t spend your quiet time figuring out the next thing to say to the person in front of you and just assume what they’ll probably tell you next, just listen to what they are saying, truly listen, and respond to what they are actually saying—you may surprise yourself in what you can achieve. Maybe if the shark listened to Batman about not eating Robin, Batman wouldn’t have needed to bust out his Bat-Light-Saber. *What I need to work on: Remembering names. I’m so good with faces but names always seem to escape me.

This may look like just a picture of Batman fighting a shark with a light-saber, but I swear there is a point to be made.

Remember those assignments I got awhile back? Well last night was another perfect opportunity to check another one off on the list.

Golden Assignment III: Practice listening. Attempt to spend 2/3 of your time listening rather than speaking.

This may be the assignment I need the most practice in*. Not that I don’t listen, but I will admit there are times when I could have certainly paid greater attention to what someone was saying rather than thinking about what I could say next.

We spend so much time worrying about carrying a conversation that we tend to ignore the basic fundamentals of a conversation, the act of listening.

Recently, a random, yet controversial topic arose with a friend after a quite delicious homemade dinner. It started out with the subject of stereotypes and soon escalated to issues of race, gender, welfare, natural rights, blah blah blah it’s not really important, the main point is that the subject matter was of things we primarily disagreed upon.

You could cut the tension that was boiling up within my friend with, well, something lesser than a light-saber because that’s too easy; however, by really listening to my friend, rather than the usual raised voices and painstaking stress she was used to, there was dialogue, teaching, understanding and even laughs. By listening, my friend felt heard for a change rather than talked at, and I personally felt we grew from the situation. We had a conversation, not an argument and even though this situation could have easily turned itself into something along the lines of a light-saber wielding batman fending off a massive shark, we didn’t raise our voices once and we actually agreed on a final answer to the problem. I listened, and it was so foreign to my friend that she actually thanked me for it afterward.

Don’t spend your quiet time figuring out the next thing to say to the person in front of you and just assume what they’ll probably tell you next, just listen to what they are saying, truly listen, and respond to what they are actually saying—you may surprise yourself in what you can achieve. Maybe if the shark listened to Batman about not eating Robin, Batman wouldn’t have needed to bust out his Bat-Light-Saber.

*What I need to work on: Remembering names. I’m so good with faces but names always seem to escape me.