August 17, 2012

Something to be said for good listener skills

I don’t know everything. I’m not a specialist. I’m not famous. I’m an observer. I ask questions. And I listen to what people are saying/doing.

There’s something to be said in favour of those with good listener skills.

What I have learned to recognize about maintaining an balance between time and work and play, is that there will always be a method suggested to help improve your lifestyle whether you wish to be changed or not. Words are cheap, and the communication that we define as a language between other human beings (despite the variety in assigning meanings to different sounds in different dialects) is the most successful ‘invention’ to date. Communication and language are the tools that we use to understand one another.

The reasons that people seek change, such as external rewards and circumstances in order to discover/find themselves, is a method to understand the patterns and impulses that have shaped their process of thinking. This is the beginning of listening to how your mind thinks and the baby steps of a critical thinker.

Recognition of the patterns of reasoning, and the output of a ‘behaviour’ that we repeat, and the expectations of behaviours from ourselves and others in socially required etiquette times and situations, are enforced by when they do occur, and disastrous when they don’t.

I listen to what people are saying/doing in order to understand their character. I use the knowledge that I gained from listening, in order to judge and understand myself in relation to them. I’m an observer.

“To know that you do not know is the best. To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.” ~Tao Te Ching