Being in the moment with your listening

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You may have read the quote “the biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand we listen to reply.” I know for many of us we find this difficult, but why do we find this so hard, and how can we listen more to understand than reply? Let’s look at the problem with us listening to respond. If we are formulating an answer in our minds, then how can we possibly be listening? We miss the main point of what the person is saying and give the person a huge dis-service by not being fully present nor actively listening to what they are saying. Let’s look at the benefits of actively listening. If we are truly listening to the other person, we are showing a real interest in exactly what they are saying. Following up with questions about what they have just said not only shows we are

This is the way to do it!

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What are the main things that stop us from focusing on our goals? What are the main distractions which prevent us from completing our daily activities? How many minutes do we spend on time-wasting activities? How well do we manage our time? We all know that if we want to get anywhere in this life we need to be organised, super-efficient, motivated and focused, don’t we? How can we stop the madness of our crazy lives and push the pause button, so we can just get things done, so things can just go the way we want them to. Here are four results which are tried and tested and may help you become more focused and achieve more in your working day. M-MANAGE – sometimes we just need to better manage what we are doing and try to deal with short-term crises and problems that can arise by thinking ahead

Chiefs and Indians!

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Chiefs and Indians! I’m sure you’ve heard the expression too many chiefs and not enough Indians? Usually this saying is in relation to having too many bosses and not enough workers, and all the bosses telling the workers something different! Let’s look at another scenario using the same saying but in a business sense. I often hear from friends, colleagues and clients, that when they ask others for advice or tell others of a situation or difficulty they are in or struggling with, they are always offer their advice. There are a few problems with this scenario: How do you know the friend or colleague is an expert on that problem, or is an authority in that situation? Very often these friends or colleagues’ advice nearly always conflicts with what others say, so you end up totally confused and overwhelmed, wishing you’d never asked in the first place! The other

What do you see when you focus your eyes?

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I am continually amazed at how many tips and articles there are about how to keep focused, and pretty much they all say the same thing in terms of uncluttering your desk, removing those distractions etc. But let’s start with asking you a different question. What do you see when you focus your eyes? When a camera focuses something, e.g. a flower. It makes adjustments so we see only that one thing, causing everything else to be out of focus. As we know our eyes do the same thing. We focus on that one thing, our eyes focus on the flower, and everything around us blurs out. Let’s look at the meaning of the word focus. It derives from the verb focus, which means to fix on a central point. It’s strange that we all know what it means, we can do it with our cameras and with our eyes,

How Focused Do You Want To Be?

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Today is going to be different! I will be more organised from tomorrow! I WILL focus and not be side-tracked! Do one or more of these statements ring true for you? Have you been guilty of saying exactly that or similar? Well you are not alone, but why? Why is it so hard to be focused and just get things done? We can all be full of good intentions but for some reason as the day goes on they wane. So how can we fight being unfocused? Here’s some helpful tips to help you be and stay focused: Define and write down your daily goals – be really clear what those daily goals are and by writing them down you are committing to them – score them off one by one as you complete them to gain that feeling of accomplishment Organise your breaks – sometimes when we get going