How To Even…Actively Listen

By Michael Gushue & CL Bledsoe

People talk. It’s probably their favorite thing to do, aside from driving slowly in front of me or being generally better at life than me. You can run away from them, screaming, with your hands over your ears, or you can suck it up and listen. And if you’re going to listen, you should do it right.

There are many benefits to listening to people. They might be trying to give you something, though it’s probably a bill or a summons. So, okay, scratch that. How about you won’t be as surprised when things happen. Um…well, that’s probably the only actual benefit. Also, it could be argued that that’s less of a benefit because life would be more interesting if you never knew what was happening. Let’s skip ahead.

Listening is fine, but if you really want to suss out the true nature of communication and get to the gritty-nitty, you’ve got to listen…actively. Active listening is like being the power bottom of the conversation. Don’t just sit there and take the information. Maybe we shouldn’t continue with this analogy.

Body Language i.e. Looking Interested