Here’s a great piece of advice I picked up from my friend Marie Forleo — it’s called “true listening,” and it’s much more powerful than it sounds. It helps to train your attention muscles, and if you can train your attention muscles while you’re reading blog posts and articles, listening to teleclasses or speakers, or doing any kind of learning, it will also help in your retention of the material.
True listening is defined as “to hear what another person has to say from their point of view” and it requires that you stop listening to your internal commentary, and you know what that is — it’s that thing that breaks your connection with people.
At all times, most of us have an internal voice inside of our heads judging what people are saying. Try it right now — stop listening to that voice and put your full attention upon really hearing what I’m saying — and listen to it from a non-judgmental point of view. Don’t think, “That won’t work,” or “I’ve heard that before,” or “How lame,” or any of your usual reactions.
Don’t let your internal commentary win out. Don’t judge what you’re learning while you’re learning it. If you want to judge it afterwards, that’s ok, but judgment blocks learning if you judge during the process.
Hope that makes sense to you — when you judge this after the fact.
