Listening with a deaf ear...

I was reminded this week that often the people that we talk to don’t actually pay attention to what we say. I also realized that most people do not give undivided focus to any single item or person anymore, at all. We live in a diverse and busy multi-tasking world and it divides our attention among many things at one time. I am not saying that I don’t like multi-tasking, because I like to have more than one thing going at a time, but I don’t like to be ignored or forgotten and I don't like that I ignore or forget others too.

I guess this made me think about whether or not I focus on those that speak to me or if I have 20 others things grabbing my attention, so that, I don’t hear what they are saying. It takes diligence to focus on one person and one conversation, rather than allowing your mind to jump from item to item. I used to think it was just ADD or ADHD or any of those ABCD’s, but I think it just might be human nature and not a disease or disorder. We all do it. My children do it, I do it, my coworkers do it - everyone loses the needed focus that we should have.

This is a challenging thought because we all tend to be selfish and want to talk and think about what we want to talk and think about. We don’t want to focus on another’s need or what they are saying, and that often hurts them, because they need us to care about them and hear them. Ouch! This really caused me to think today that I have to be more focused on the needs of others rather than just on me.

Lessons Learned: Others need us. We need others. Pay attention.

Thoughts: When was the last time that you actually focused, on purpose, to another person’s conversation?