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Are you hard of listening or hard of hearing ?
There is definitely a difference between hearing and listening and most of the times though we can hear still we are hard of listening.Why the difference? Because hearing is through ears but when it is combined with eyes and undivided attention, things reach our heart and leads to listening.
Its been reflected in various studies that Listening accounts to 45% of our day to day communication.Although it holds such a major portion of our communication, has anyone been trained by parents or teachers on how should one listen.
Since most of the time while hearing either we are preoccupied WITH WORK,television Or internet,distracted by cellphones etc or at times forgetful and the result is that we hardly remember 20% of what we hear.
Active listening is a learned skill and is an intermittent process wherein you paraphrase or summarize whats been said and ask questions in between to confirm your understanding.
As rightly quoted 'the word LISTEN contains same letters as the word SILENT' ,one needs to silently listen to understand the communicator's views and restrict from distracting or interrupting between the lines when the speaker is trying to remember certain details.
A listerner should not try to change the topic before the communicator finishes his say until and unless justified.
Once the communicator feels accepted and acknowledged the relationship between the two will be stronger and the openness environment brings about personal growth and learning.
Listening is also essential to deal with any form of conflict to minimize confusion and maximize the understanding between the parties.
So be a Listener to bring about learning and stronger relations..