Life Skills #2: Listening

Our successes in life depend a lot on which voices we listen to the most. And we're hearing lots.

For a few weeks, I stalled. I stopped writing. I couldn't. I wouldn't. I realized the reason was that I listened more to the other voices inside me —fear, laziness, selfishness. And I gagged the voices I should have been listening to all the time. Here are a few reasons at work:

Fear. We may not recognize it as such, but, creating change and being changed causes fear in our hearts. We'd rather be safe and comfortable. We shun the unfamiliar. And we'd rather have things as they are. Challenging the status quo is scary. Because, most often than not, we could be alone in it. We don't like being alone. This voice inside us argues loudly, "It's not right, be practical. Just fit in." Sadly, this voice often wins.

Laziness. I'm not surprised this comes out. Honestly, I'm quite embarrassed I'd be admitting it. Whenever this voice has its way in me, I'd go with the flow. Be carried away. Because it's easier. And easier "jobs" don't get things done. They're fun to do. They don't really matter. Because they don't feel like work at all. It takes focused hard work to go against the flow, to do things that really matter. Not just "busy work".

Selfishness. It's the most difficult to admit. Yet, we're most crippled by it. We stop short of doing something remarkable, of giving our best, because we don't want someone else taking the credits. We put off giving our "self" because we fear that by being generous we could be taken advantage of. Or we lose something we'd rather have ourselves. And that hurts.

You see, we live in such a cynical world. But, we're inspired, and touched, and changed by rare breeds of remarkable people —Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, even Steve Jobs. We admire them. They inspire us. We wish their tribes increase. And so, why are we so inspired by them? Because deep down, we are them.

Why not start "increasing their tribes" by joining them ourselves?

These are better voices within each of us worth listening to. These voices are built-in —innate. Excellence. Passion. Generosity. Life can be better when we listen to these voices more and stop listening to the "other voices" again.

"If you don't change the way you do things, live your life, or make decisions, you'll never grow or mature or feel better about life as a whole. You've to be the change you want to see in your life." ~Lisa Turner