CONTROL THE LISTENING ENVIRONMENT

In this blog, I will be talking to you about being able to control the listening environment.  Distractions as road blocks (Distractions As Road Blocks, 2002) to listening, is an important concept to understand.   In order to be fully attentive to what message the speaker is attempting to convey, we as listeners (Listening Skills, 2009) must avoid internal and external distractions.  Do you remember my personal experience?  If I had for example, taken the headphones out my ears and made the effort physically to stand across from the janitor to listen to him, perhaps my whole ordeal could have been avoided. 

In order to understand how you can control your environment, let’s examine what the difference is between internal and external distraction.  Internal distractions are questions about your thought process, and whether or not you are having competing thoughts.  As I was walking to my locker for example, my mind was preoccupied with when I was going to meet my friends for lunch and I wasn't exactly keen on listening to the janitor. 

As a listener we need to learn to channel our focus internally to focus on what is being said by the speaker which in my case, was the janitor. Asking yourself questions about what are your surroundings like and whether or not it is the appropriate atmosphere for the conversation, is an example of finding ways to solve an external distraction.  Most of all, its really important to be emotionally available in order to listen to the speaker. I didn't even allow the janitor to engage in a conversation with me since I was more focused on my grumbling belly at lunch time. Stay tuned to find out more about building powerful listening skills and please let me know, what's your most embarrassing experience you have had with an external or internal distraction.