“Listen Louder”
A man realized he needed to purchase a hearing aid, but he felt
unwilling to spend much money. “How much do they run?” he asked the
clerk.
“That depends,” said the salesman. “They run from 2 dollars to 2,000
dollars.”
“Let’s see the 2 dollar model,” he said.
The clerk put the device around the man’s neck. “You just stick this
button in your ear and run this little string down to your pocket,” he
instructed.
“How does it work?” the customer asked.
“For 2 dollars — it doesn’t work,” the salesman replied. “But when
people see it on you, they’ll talk louder!”
As you know, our communication problems are not due to people talking
too softly. Unfortunately, we are not always good listeners.
Do you know that people will pay hundreds of dollars an hour for no
other reason than to have someone listen to them? Psychologist Carl
Rogers said, “A person’s real need, a most terrible need, is for
someone to listen…
not as a ‘patient’ but as a human soul.”
To listen well is to respond to a great human yearning.
One small child put it like this: “I’ll try to listen louder.”
What could happen if you “listened louder” today?
C Copyright by Steve Goodier.
About the Author: Steve Goodier is a newspaper columnist and author of
numerous books on personal development. Visit his site for more
information, eBooks, or to sign up for his ezine newsletter of Life,
Love and Laughter at http://LifeSupportSystem.com/
Leave a Reply