Personal Development Strategies - How to Be a Better Listener

Any personal development strategy involves becoming curious about yourself, taking who you are - and how you - are less and less for granted. If you are embarking on some kind of personal growth work, you've EMC E20-370 exam probably already experienced this curiosity: 'Why do I react that way?' 'How come I'm stuck in his rut?' 'Why am I bullied?' 'Why do my relationships end in fights?'
Acknowledging there is a need for personal growth often comes by way of pain, hurt or frustration. In order to conceive that life could possibly be any different, we have to question ourselves. We start to hear the statements we make about ourselves from a new perspective. We have to get curious about our own inner dialogue, the inner chatter that fills our heads for most of our waking hours.
We spend literally hours of every waking day reinforcing our own shortcomings, for example:
'Money slips through my fingers'.
'I can't hold down a good job'.
'I am hopeless at interviews'.
'Nobody listens to me'.
'I never get what I really want in life'.

One Buddhist adept said, "Yesterday I thought 10,000 thoughts. Today I thought 10,000 thoughts... 8,000 were the same as yesterday's."
That's some habit... not to say compulsion!
But that's the kind of thing that we all spend a lot of our time listening to. We call it 'thinking.' I prefer the term, 'self-talk' because that helps us focus on the nature of that internal dialogue and that in turn has a lot to teach us about the relationship we have with ourselves.
We all learned to be who EMC E20-597 exam we are through our contacts with other people: siblings, parents, wider family members, authority figures like teachers and, of course, the media and advertising.
So how does listening to others help us in our personal development?
First, most people find it easier to listen to others without judgement than they do to listen to their own self talk. Most people are much more generous in listening to others that they are in listening to themselves, especially if they learn to follow a few simple rules.
Second, you learn that longer than average periods of silence often lead to discoveries and new insights. You learn to value silence; learn how to ensure that silences in conversations are nonthreatening and learn how to leave longer and longer silences in your own self talk. This is one of the keys to responding, rather than reacting.
Next, you learn to watch your own responses to the personal story you are listening to. Do you feel hurt, embarrassed, uncomfortable, impatient, irritable or angry at what you are hearing? Do you find yourself wanting to rescue, chide, console, tell off, the person you're listening to? As you listen, are you straining to resist telling your partner what they ought to do? (hat's okay, it happens to all of us from time to time. But please don't act on it... just notice.)
You're likely to notice that issues like these tend to pull you out of the open, generous, childlike curiosity I spoke about earlier. What's happening here is that it - as a listener - you're having your buttons pressed! Your storyteller's issues are likely to have been very similar to your own. Hence the emotional, or even visceral, reactions. Your own personal development is enhanced because you now have an opportunity to work with them.
And because you've had the opportunity to discover them, or be reminded of them, outside of your usual patterns of thinking, thinking, thinking you are likely to discover new insights that will help you on your own personal development journey.
I should say, in conclusion, that the ethics of helping and listening require that you honour your role as listener. above all else in your interaction ST0-029 with your storyteller. The listener's primary role is to facilitate the speaker in telling their own story. However, exploring your own reactions - the kind of work that counselors do in supervision - can help the listener in their personal growth.