Almost listening
Today’s blog is about one of the most banal topics possible - listening. Because listening is actually harder than it seems and I’ve failed at it multiple times.
Almost listening is when you are supposed to be listening but are only partially doing it and hence are missing out. The other person will definitely realize this although you might not.
Scenario 1: Not listening because you think you know the topic already.
New ideas are difficult to explain and grasp. Sometimes when a new idea is mentioned, the novelty is not clearly obvious. Rather than ingesting and thinking about the new idea, default human biases will make you want to associate it with something that you already know and simply discard it. You have got to unlearn a bit, and try to make sense of the information.
Scenario 2: Not listening because you are multitasking,
This one probably happens much more often since we are at peak distraction as a society. Listening attentively is harder than glancing at the latest notification.
My personal next steps are to try and me more mindful and reduce how frequently I do this.