In every space, every aspect and every part of our life, it is listening – truly and intently listening — which is our greatest offering to anyone sharing our life or crossing our path. It is only through real listening that true understanding can occur.
Do you think you really know how to listen?
I know — and my family will gladly vouch for it – that I have been a ridiculously poor listener all my life — and have struggled greatly to change my habits and to learn to slow down and really listen.
Listening is the most difficult, yet simplest and most overlooked and most rewarding skill you could develop. Much as we love to hear ourselves talk, and believe me, I do, it is in the listening that we learn our greatest lessons, that we get to know our greatest friends, and that we are exposed to our greatest experience in life and among others.
Listening is not the same as hearing. We hear a million things but we tune in to a few and we really listen to even a lesser degree. If we listen carefully, we remember far more accurately. If we listen with all our focus and attention, we offer the best gift to those who need to be heard. If we afford to listen for once without thinking of what we are going to say next, or what we need to do next, amazing things start to unfold. We may find ourselves still greatly moved from a speech we heard a decade ago because we absorbed every ounce of inspiration, every word in its exact enunciation, and every performance from the speaker. We may very well move someone else indefinitely by offering them the gift of true listening.
I am not advocating listening to everything all the time. It is fine — and sometimes necessary – not to listen. Few things are worth our time and being seriously selective is an expression of our freedom to live life on our own terms. But it is important to be genuine and honest with yourself — if you are not going to listen, do not pretend otherwise — and always know the price of not listening when it may apply to things which interest you a great deal.
“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
~ Stephen Covey
You do not get to complain if you do not listen to your customer. You do not get to assume the nature of a problem if you do not listen to your partner. You do not get to win an argument if you do not listen to the other side.
And you do not get very far as a blogger if you do not listen to your readers. Listen to your readers! Listen carefully and listen every time they tell you something. Then listen some more. The blog is not about you; it is about you making it relevant to them and you do that first by listening.
So it is in listening to you that I came upon the idea for my first eBook; it is in response to your requests that I put myself through the two-week exercise of learning how to provide value beyond the regular posts. Thank you.
The Blogworld Series hit a chord with many of you. In the comments and emails and Tweets, I heard over and over the request for a comprehensive printable and readable version of the series and I turned it into a massive exhausting and a huge learning project, which I am thrilled to say is complete!
Today, I am offering a gift to my darling readers. The Blogworld 2010 Experience eBook is a free gift for you in both the PDF printable readable and easy to save format as well as in epub format which is the preferred (and great) format for e-readers such as iPhone, iPad, Google Android, Amazon Kindle (with a plugin), Barnes & Noble Nook and many others.
Check out the landing page, read the testimonials, download the eBook and share it with your network if you find it valuable!
Writing this first ebook and learning the process has ignited another fire and I intend to write and offer many more in the future. Some may be an extension of topics covered briefly on the blog; others may be exploring new aspects of Prolific Living and Smart Habits for Rich Living but I am not doing any of that without first hearing more from you so please speak your mind:
~ What interests you as a reader here in this space?
~ What topics – from traveling, health, yoga, communication, writing, reading, languages, the classics, smart habits, personal development, public speaking, photography, blogging, and Persian culture – would you like to see covered in more depth?
~ What type of medium do you prefer — ebook, podcast, video?
In other news, I am starting a Newsletter for us in November. This is an excellent way to keep up on the Prolific Living news such new as ebooks and guides which I create for us, contests and surveys which I run, interviews and guest posts which do not appear here on the blog as well as anything else that I need to tell you about the new and exciting things happening here!
~ If you are an email subscriber, you will receive the newsletter automatically. The first one will go out this week with some exciting news!
~ If you are not an email subscriber, just use the form on top right to sign up!
~ If you are not sure, sign up anyway and I’ll tell you which one you are!
Photography above by Pascal Monmoine
I am Farnoosh, the founder of Prolific Living. So glad you are here. My mission is to empower you to unblock your creative genius to live your dream life.