Listening is the key to life.
Learning how to interpret what people are actually saying is one of the most difficult things to do.
The only way to do this is by listening.
Listening is the best way to love someone.
Listening requires you to put another persons thoughts, time, and life ahead of yours. It means less of you and more of them. It means putting your desires on hold and putting their desires above yours. Listening means you put aside your agenda.
When you listen, you are essentially giving away part of your life - in that listening takes up time. Listening takes up energy. Listening takes mental strength that is not being used on yourself.
Listening is selfless.
In music, I get compensated to listen. People come to me to listen to their music and then adjust things to ensure that what they have created gets translated to their audience. During this process I have to learn how to listen to their music and to their desires.
When I approach a project, I always listen first. I listen for what is great about the performance and what may hinder it from translating. I listen to where the song is and where it needs to go. I listen to the client express things about their hopes and dreams for the mastering process.
A client may describe a need for the bass to hit like "thunder" and the top end to "sparkle" like clouds. On paper there's nothing super tangible there for me to work with. There is no "thunder" button or a "sparkle" button. There is technically no "thunder" or "sparkle" frequency. Over time I have learned what these things mean and what to use to get these results - but my point is that I have to start to engage with them.
I have to listen to them.
I have to lay down my thoughts, bias, and interpretation of what "thunder" means to me and figure out what it means to them. This starts the communication process. This starts the process of listening.
I let them speak, then I think about what was said, then I ask more questions about what was already said to better understand them. None of this is about me or my agenda.
Listening is like a bridge over a canyon that only has room for one person. The bridge can only support one person at a time or it collapses. You have to allow one person to go. Then you get to go. You don't get to both go or you will collide and collapse.
Listening is intentional.
What people think about a situation is more important then what is really going on with the situation.
You have to be willing to come to a conversation and put your worldview on pause and listen to what the other person thinks is going on. This is hard, but this is the only way to truly engage and listen. You have to surrender all judgement when listening. You have to be willing to approach the conversation knowing that what you thought you knew to be true may no longer be true.
If you approach a person or a client with a fixed mindset, you will struggle with listening.
Most of the worlds problems come from not listening. Most of my problems within my business are from me not listening correctly.
Violence happens when people run out of words.
Violence happens when people do not feel like anyone is listening.
I have never regretted listening to someone, but I have always regretted interrupting someone.
I want to encourage you to listen more carefully today. I want to encourage you to listen without an agenda today.
You will not regret it.
Let me know of ways you listen.