Listening is a very hard skill to master.  It’s much easier to talk peoples ear off with everything that you want to say or is on your mind.  But here is the thing… In society EVERYONE wants to have a voice so they speak more to try to convey their message and most people think that “the more I say the better I can get my message across”.

While in reality, it’s the exact opposite.

I have worked with many entrepreneurs who had no idea how to listen.  They thought they had the greatest idea since sliced bread and wanted to let everyone know that. The most successful people in history all had something in common: they knew how to listen.  Winston Churchill would listen to his trusted advisers.  That doesn’t mean he agreed with everything they had to say, but that is not the point. Successful people listen, absorb, and take things in.  They are not blabbermouths.

Its simple human nature that we all want to be listened to.  I love it when someone pays attention to me and wants to listen.  So does everyone else.  If you pay a genuine interest in others, and are open to what they have to say you will be amazed at how much you can learn from them while listening and observing rather than running your own mouth.

So what do you do?  SHUT UP AND LISTEN.  Seriously.  It takes a ton of conscious practice and effort to learn how to listen and is no easy task. Do whatever you have to do to listen even if its means covering your mouth, or pinch yourself every time you want to talk in a conversation. Anything to start breaking the negative pattern that has been ingrained in you.

For me I have had to learn the hard way on how to listen.  It did not come easy, and is something I still continually must practice at daily.  However, since I have became a listener I enjoy conversations much more, I don’t miss things, and instead of always trying to put in my two cents I listen to others who generally have amazing advice and ideas to give which would never be heard if I were not listening!

We can listen to ourselves all day long in our heads.

Listening is a great skill and a sign of maturity and wisdom.  Become a listener.

I believe that we really never truly learn unless we actually apply the gained knowledge. You can learn from all sorts the teachings, read all kinds of books, and/or take every kind of class there is in the world, but unless you have the real world experience, you will never feel – and that feeling, from the experience is what we learn from.

There are lots of smart people out there, lots of geniuses, people that are street smart, and people that are book smart. Wisdom is a product of age. Absolutely. Living longer allows you to have more experiences. Yet, that doesn’t mean that if you are old you are wise.

Learn to APPLY your knowledge into real life experiences, and all the wisdom in the world can become yours.