Listen Up! Learning How to be a Better Listener and Have Better Conversations...

Have you ever been in a conversation and have had trouble focusing or just wanted out? I recently watched a TedTalk by Celeste Headlee called "10 Ways to have a Better Conversation" that exposed our society's struggles with listening and gave helpful tips to combat this issue. 

Celeste Headlee had many profound ideas in her TedTalk "10 Ways to have a Better Conversation". The idea that stuck out to me the most was the staggering fact she shared that Pew Research did a study on 10,000 Americans and found that right now, we are the most divided we have ever been in history. In her speech Headlee explains how this is due to the fact that people are just not willing to listen. 

Although I hate to admit it, I am definitely a part of that issue of struggling with listening. If something doesn't interest me or seems "inconvenient" to me at the time I dismiss it and don't give it my undivided attention. I think many people today do the same thing, and I believe it is due to our shortened attention span created by the instant information we can obtain thanks to technology. Why do I have to listen to someone tell me a story about their camping trip for 20 minutes when I can look up a Youtube video of someone else going camping and get a result in less than a second?

With this being said, Headlee's talk has given me tips to work on this issue of half-listening. I need to engage fully with no distractions, stop equating my experiences with the speakers' and go into conversations knowing that I can learn something from every conversation I have. 

Lastly, Headlee stated, "If you wanted to state your opinion without any opportunity for response or argument or pushback or growth, write a blog." 

Well, here I am!! Just kidding. You can click here to watch this TedTalk and feel free to respond in the comments below with your thoughts and opinions!