LISTENING DOESN'T COME NATURALLY

Most of us think that we know how to listen.......but honestly, it's a learned science.  Why?  Because it's difficult to listen without judging, trying to fix, rescuing, advising or criticizing.  Try it. Watch how fast you want to do one of the above, usually without even thinking.  What's difficult but so much more effective is to listen to not only what people are saying, but what they are not saying.  We need to listen not only with our ears, but with our eyes and our hearts.  Try to suspend that internal conversation you are having of what you are going to say next and just pause.  "Pausing is just like putting the clutch in when you are driving a car with a stick shift:  it lets you slow down just enough to engage the gears before you speed up."  Nance Guilmartin