Hey, welcome back to practicing human. This is the podcast where every day we're

practicing getting a little better at life. I'm your host, Corey Miskara, and in

today's episode I'm going to share a tip for how you can become a better listener.

More to come on that in a moment.

But first, let's settle in with our lovely bells. I'll ring them, you listen, and let the sound attune your attention a little more to the present moment. Okay, so today's topic, how to be a better listener. As you can imagine this is a very big topic and we could do well

a whole year's worth of podcast episodes just looking at that. But I want to give you one tip that I think you can

apply immediately into your next conversation that will deepen the quality of the conversation, make you feel more connected to the person,

and make the other person feel like you're truly listening to them.

And this tip is to listen to understand rather than listening to respond.

Now I can't take credit for this. I don't know who originally said it. I have had trouble tracking it down.

But I can take credit for spreading this far and wide. I love this idea. I share it in all my presentations if you read my book you probably saw it in my book and the reason I think it's so brilliant is because it's so easy to implement it doesn't require doing an extended meditation practice, it doesn't require doing an

extended communication practice, it doesn't require doing an extended communication practice,

just in the next conversation you have, all you're going to do is practice shifting

your mindset.

So if you're like me or like many people, it's very easy to be in a conversation and already be

rehearsing what you're going to say next. Somebody is sharing a story, it

triggers something that you want to share in response and then for the second half of that story you're already thinking about the story you're going to share and not actually fully there with that person.

And some of this is okay.

I mean, any like really strong rapport conversation or when two people are like highly

energized with each other, there's usually a quick going back and forth and

exchange of ideas and one person shares something and then the other goes, oh wait I

want to tell you something and it's playful and it can be fun. So I want to make

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