Listen More and Notice Things

Good morning everyone.  Today’s motivational minute was initially inspired by a quote from late British psychologist R.D. Lange writing on awareness and it reads,

“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice THAT we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.”

When I first read this, it quickly brought to mind the message behind another book I recently read by Eckhart Tolle entitled, “The Power of Now”.  Tolle teaches that the richness of life can only be experienced by being 100% completely present in every moment.  It is like saying that yesterday is gone and tomorrow can only be experience when it finally gets here and becomes now.

I thought about these two sources and had a wonderful inspiration regarding how both messages fit together and could be crafted into a practical and useful idea.

Since Ghandi said, “We must become the change we seek in the world.”, and because modeling behavior is the spirit and center of any leadership effort, I decided to model something for you this week.  I decided to run a week long experiment where I strove to be completely, cognitively present in every waking moment and to notice everything I never realized I wasn’t noticing before.

I discovered two things.  First, it was not easy.  More importantly, it quickly became very apparent that I was noticing a change in the quality and nature of my listening.  We all know that as sales people we are supposed to listen more and speak less.  That is the way to understand a customer’s needs.  How many of us do that really well?  I know that I do not.  This week, however, was noticeably different.  I listened more, uncovered more and got so much more out of my interactions with people.  It did not take long to see that I could not notice the things I failed to notice before AND talk at the same time.

It was a great experiment and I encourage everyone to try it.  For my part, it will continue to be a useful practice to help improve both my sales skills and my interpersonal communication skills.

Think about it this way.  When was the last time you said, “I really don’t like that guy.  He listens too well and seems to care about my needs.”

Have a great week and start noticing everything you have failed to notice you haven’t noticed before.