“The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.”  ~Ralph Nichols

We all need to feel valued and important!

Do you truly listen and understand what people are saying?

Truly listen???

Truly Understand??

or do you HALF listen?

We all need a good reminder about this from time to time. 

Truly listening and understanding someone’s perspective really can help them feel valued, important, accepted, validated, understood and cared for. 

Just taking the time to be there with powerful listening skills can help someone rise above whatever obstacles they are facing. 

Which really is a special gift!

We often don’t really hear what the other person is saying because we are too quick to judge, provide solutions, and disagree, rather than being a good sounding board.

Good listening has the power to improve any and all relationships!!

Don’t underestimate its value!

Yet, Good listening is VERY RARE!! 

Put aside your own agenda. 

Listen patiently without interrupting.

Try repeating to yourself “Just listen, don’t interupt”

Reflect what you heard and ask questions to get more information TO UNDERSTAND better what they are truly saying. 

Don’t think about other things—- FOCUS on what the person in front of you is telling you right here right now. 

Don’t  judge, criticize, or think about all the advice you want to give them. (or how wrong they are)

Repeat to yourself “Don’t be judgmental!”

When you are judging someone for what they are telling you, that person will shut down.  

We don’t feel comfortable opening up to someone who is judging us. 

Remember that LISTENING doesn’t mean that you AGREE with what they are saying.  It means that you care enough to try to understand what they are thinking and saying. 

Nonjudgmental listening gives the other person a feeling of your acceptance and builds trust.

Listening is a true gift which you can share to increase trust and connection with your kids, your spouse, your friends, and your co-workers. 

Repeat to yourself “Just listen”

It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

Here’s to STRENGTHENING your LISTENING skills. 

It really does make a BIG difference when people feel heard and understood. 

If you’d like to discover how personal life coaching can help you or if you’re looking for a speaker or trainer for a workshop or event, reach out at fay@fayprairie.com or 507-829-0181 and we can set up a time to visit.

I’ve always really liked this story because–We are often like the elephant in this story–We’ve tried to make changes in the past and it didn’t work so now we believe that it’s not possible.  

As a man was passing by the elephants at the circus, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. 

No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they didn’t.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked:

     “Why don’t the elephants try to get away?”

The trainer responded:

 “Well, when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we haven’t been able to do it before?

How many of us are held back by believing something that really isn’t true?

By believing that there is a rope holding us back when really there’s no rope at all, just our conditioned beliefs about what is possible for us.

Sometimes, just like the elephant, it’s hard to see our own limiting beliefs.  

That’s where I come in.  I help you to identify the limiting beliefs that are holding you back and keeping you from breaking free to feeling good, inspired, optimistic, hopeful and empowered to be able to live the life you want to live.

If you’d like support in breaking free from your limiting beliefs,  email me at fay@fayprairie.com and let me know you’d like to set up a FREE 30 minute NO OBLIGATION phone call to see how personal life coaching can help you transform your life. 

I help set you free from stress, anxiety, worry, negativity, and depression, so you can be a Better You, have Better Relationships and live a Better Life.

You’ll be able to start creating the life you want to live!

Sometimes it takes an objective, third party to help us get “unstuck” and positively moving forward!