Snoop Blog on Listening: Words to Savor, Rhyming Flavor.
Give a Listen
Folks say, “Listen up,” or “You must pay attention!” Yet they’re all these distractions-- way too many to mention.
Seems like every interaction comes with a distraction whether you listen completely or by only a fraction, there’s a distraction.
There’s the call on your cell, the baked goods you can smell or the person next door who doesn’t sing so well.
You try hard to focus but you can tell when it’s getting hard to listen as you start reminiscing about something so grand it takes your attention span way from the subject at hand.
Not grand. Not good. That’s understood.
But there are things that you can do that are tried and true to improve the way to take information in.
How do you it? Just listen.
First and foremost, give full attention to the speaker and the topic. If your mind drifts, stop it. Stare the speaker and take the words in. That’s the best way to make sure you listen.
Second, keep your mouth shut—no matter how much you’d like to interrupt. Allow the speaker to finish before you reply. It might sound difficult but give it a try.
Third, learn to manage the background noise.
Sometimes it’s easy; you might have a choice to silence your phone or close a window or simply turn your music volume from high to low.
Other times, when there are sounds that you simply can’t mute like the chatter on a subway or rain hitting your roof—learn to focus and concentrate on the sound you want to hear and lessen the others tugging at your ear.
Try this: slap your palm on your thigh and focus only on that sound—not those nearby. Did you make the other sounds drift to the background? Try it over and again, and the next time someone speaks to you listen with that type of focus, ignoring all other voices and noises.
