Week 5 Post 3

What I wanted to pull out of the text is the question of: how do you teach someone to be a better listener? One of my best friends is notorious for not listening, and she's the type of conversationalist where you know she's not listening and she's thinking of what she's saying next...love her, but it drives me crazy sometimes! And I have told her before that she wasn't listening to me, and she apologizes and says she's working on it (so, she knows) but she always goes back to it. She's the best example of this that I have in my life now, but I've come across bad listeners at many other times of my life. What I need to do with my friend, and should do in the future, is to tell her to stop and really absorb what someone is telling you. I think people would be surprised if they listened because they would really find out some wonderful and interesting things. Another piece of advice I would give them is to gather their thoughts beforehand if they knew it'd be a big talk, or to simply say to the other person, "I have a hard time listening, it's not you I promise, so please tell me if I seem to not be giving you my full attention!" If someone told me that, I would probably laugh and have a more beneficial conversation with them! It's a tough question, because everyone is different, but I hope that these pieces of advice will help.