Mindful Listening. Week of 9/24-30 Question #1

Listening is an important trait we either posses at a young age or learn overtime. For example, when I was young, I typically asked a lot of questions and paid less attention when a parent or teacher was talking. When comparing my listening skills to today, I am more of an active listener (when I want to be :-P), which allows me to hear my peers, parents, or professors instead of chiming in at inappropriate times; this gives me the opportunity to learn and develop patience. When it comes to the six types of non-listening and determining which one of them portrays me most, I would have to say I am a pseudo-listener and a selective listener. I am guilty of using a laptop in class to take notes, but every so often find myself preoccupied by Facebook or my Yahoo account, whoops! But just like the book states, “we engage in pseudo-listening when we want to appear conscientious”…or when we want “to appear to be attentive” but our brains are elsewhere (Woods 153). I believe I am a victim to this because in some instances I feel like I either know the material being covered or I have heard it before; but this certainly does not give me the right to not pay attention—it is rude and selfish. I have definitely learned from this before when receiving a bad grade because I thought I knew it all. It is only 75 minutes of giving a professor your undivided attention, and I am going to work on that by turning off my WI-Fi in class and only having my word document open. I am also a selective listener when hearing customers talk at work or when people have advice and I see it as boring or irrelevant. I think it is also a habit when I do not want to hear the truth; this occurs when I engage in conversation regarding school, jobs or my future with my parents. I tend to want to shut them out when I think they are wrong, or when they get on a touchy subject I know I need to work on. I plan on fixing this by listening fully and having an active and open mind; I want to learn as much information I can and gain advice from my peers and parents instead of shutting them down; therefore, the only way to do so is to be quiet and be attentive.