Episode 147 - More on Active Listening

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Several listeners heard me say, you don’t need to be in an active listening mode all the time and they wondered what benefit was there to not actively listening.

My reply is, when you turn off active listening you stay on the healthy side of paranoia and you don’t clog your brain with trivial information. Active listening is done consciously so it takes effort. It’s like having your listening skills in the full “on” position. That might sound worthwhile to some but being “on” all the time is not healthy as it diverts your energy from getting other things done, such as your work.

We have chipmunks in our backyard. When one bravely scouts acorns on the open patio, he frequently stops, cocks his head back and scans the landscape with his ears. He’s on full listening power. I assume he’s listening for danger, such as an aggressive squirrel who wants his acorn or a hawk who wants to make a meal out of unsuspecting chipmunks.

The effort he puts into listening is energy that could have been put into seeking more acorns. People are different, but we are the same in that the energy we put into one thing diminishes the energy we have for something else. It would be crazy to actively listen to, say, hours of television. Why would you want to fill your head with all that disjointed information? When dealing people-to-people, there are times when it’s not in your best interest to be listening for new input, such as when people complain about the weather and you need your powers of concentration to think through a challenge you can really inpact. It’s smart to turn on and off your active listening mode.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Episode 147 - More on Active Listening

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