listen better

I want to partly blame this on my mom… she talks and talks sometimes and I space out. Now I take that and space out when others talk. I used to really care about what everyone said and through yrs of sales and listening to clients and frankly crap I didn’t care about, I lost interest and started tuning people out. I have my moments where I am so engaged but I need to be more consistent!

I have to say, I think I listen better. As I mentioned before (I think), I used to be super good and then it faded. Maybe it’s about getting older and hearing the same old shit. I mean, I listen VERY well when people are having issues. But we did a thing at work where we have to know who did what and met whom and whatever and I was #2 out of 40 for knowing the most about people and it was mostly b/c I listen well. IT’s also b/c I shut my big mouth! lol. I don’t like when people try to talk while someone else is… it seems to be an issue with some people here- gets annoying! It’s good to just sit back and listen sometimes.

I have been complimented numerous times on how well I listen. However, I do not know if that is completely true any more. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s just things have gotten busy and I have heard the same old shit a thousand times. I mean, back in college, I loved listening to people’s problems and analyzing them. Now, I don’t like to be involved in drama and listen as well as I can to “real” problems.

For me, listening is a bit different now. I know when you listen, you usually remember things. I usually can’t remember someone’s name from 2 seconds ago. Maybe I didn’t care to meet them! I don’t know! Somehow it just wasn’t important to me. Kinda sad!

I’ve had several people bring up things about me or experiences we’ve shared in terms of conversations that I completely forgot about. What impressed me was the detail they remember about the conversation when I didn’t think anyone was listening. Linking to another goal of mine, they mentioned how I influenced them through certain conversations.

I have no problems listening to people when I am completely interested. I think sometimes I get distracted with things while talking to someone (esp on the phone). I want to make sure I am giving 100% b/c it’s a waste of their time if I am not all there. Listening to me is to make sure everyone is important b/c whether or not I think so, it’s obviously really important to them. And whether or not I think someone cares or not is irrevelent because things I say can really influence someone. The only way to influence is to listen!