3 Skills That Will Change Your Life
Author: Brett Berhoff Source: HuffPo
We often hear the term “The Game of Life.” In some ways, life is a game. It is a game of strategy that exists within your mind, the others around you, and all of the millions of variables of that make up our existence.
With all of the noise of life, and the routine of our days, how can we simplify our strategy to change our course for the better. Here are Three Simple Skills That Will Change Your Life:
Learn some Self-Awareness
Self-Awareness is one of the single most important skills in the game of life. It is the foundation for other skills. If you are not aware of yourself, it is tough to be aware of anything else. Thus, turning you into the very people you probably complain about. Start by spending a day questioning yourself, your actions, and the words that escape your mouth. When you take a moment to reflect on this, ask yourself how it feels now that you are mindful of it? Secondly, reflect on the others around you, and how they might feel as it relates to your words and actions. Also, take a moment to ask yourself how productive your actions are. Do you find yourself honking the horn in the car often? If so, analyze its effectiveness. Last time I checked, when there was traffic and people started honking, nothing happened. I would imagine that the only thing that may have taken place is the rise of stress hormone in the driver, and other drivers around them. The cars don’t disappear and clear the way for you. The horn is not magical.
Stop Hearing People, and Start Listening to Them Hearing and Listening are surprisingly very different from one another. When you “hear”, you are hearing some version of sound enter your ears. However, when you “listen”, you are processing this sound, thus giving you the opportunity to learn from it. Unfortunately, we do live in a world filled with too much noise. This can lead to a natural tendency to hear rather than listen, or worse yet, tune out all together. Start to tune your dial to “listening” more often. Pay close attention to the next conversation you have. See if there is any difference in how it feels. Take it a step further and realize that you can listen to people’s actions as well. Most humans are born with the ability to read the emotion and reaction of others. Listen to those actions, emotions and words altogether, and it will provide you a more clear picture of the situation. Take this skill to the bedroom and the boardroom, and the world will be a better place!
“The art of conversation lies in listening.” Malcolm Forbes
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