Back in my 30’s, when I was still a sales manager in the bakery business, I went through an amazing experience, “The Dark Night of the Soul.” Looking back on that time, the words I would use to describe it are: bittersweet, poignant, clarifying, intense and painful. Back then the analogy I used was “like being out on a tiny rowboat in a raging storm all alone in the middle of the ocean” or “feeling like a cracked egg.”
As part of that experience, I got “attacked” by two friends who told me I was a terrible listener. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I sat back and realized that they were right.
So I decided to become a really good listener.
Thank God, literally, that I did. That experience was the Universe’s way of getting me ready to be a hypnotist. You can’t be a good one and help people make the changes they are trying to make in their lives if you don’t listen to them.
Fast forward twenty years to now.
I find it poetic that I now am working with a client who told me she needs to become a better listener because she has been told that by people she cares about. At least now I know how to help her.
No matter what you do for a living, even if you are retired or have never worked, listening skills are absolutely vital to achieving success as a human being. Being a good listener requires being present in the moment and THAT is the secret to joy.