Good Morning,

So, what is the difference, you might ask. Think of all of the sounds that come into your ears during an average day. Background music, commercials, boring speeches, maybe your spouse coming in and saying something while you are in your office, totally focused on something else. If someone asked you 5 minutes later, what you heard, what would you say. If you, like me, were totally honest, the answer, most times would be "haven't got a clue".

Listening is totally focusing your attention on the person speaking, the song being sung, or, yes, even the commercial. What is being said and what does it really mean? Does it make sense to me. What, not only, the words, but the tone, choice of words, facial expression and body language tell me about what is being said? What is the person's track record for being believably?.

We live in an era of sound bites, small pieces of a long speech, what someone else said about what we heard, and draw conclusions. We multi task, trying to do several things that require us to focus and listen simultaneously. The reality is, we are only hearing. We are not listening.

As my oldest son used to tell his children when they were young :"FOCUS". Let us all listen and learn what is really being said and what is really going on around us.

Have a great week.