Don’t Jump The Gun

When someone comes and talks with you, either you agree or disagree. If you feel strong about your points, it is tempting to speak your point as soon as the other person has stopped talking.

If you do this then this limits your ability to understand the situation, a new perspective and widen your horizons.

Next time someone is speaking, try listening with an intent to understand her and be open to different interpretation. You don’t have to agree with them but it pays to be respectful. Imagine if you are speaking with passion about something and all the other person does is starts rambling about their point. No acknowledgement about what you said or letting you breathe.

A good rule of thumb in life is to treat others like you would expect others to treat you. Do this and you will find others are being nice, helpful and open when you exhibit these qualities first.

It’s like a karma what goes comes around. Expanding on this, once you are bad mouth, good people will start distancing from you. On the converse when you do better things, people with similar qualities get attracted to you.

You can do this by practising to control yourself. Start with a close friend and open up a discussion on something you care about. And when she shares her different perspective, don’t talk. Just nod your head and then continue with different conversation. As a result you will develop the habit to not jumping the gun.

The goal isn’t to convince others. Let she speak and then you speak and then move on – heated arguments are not useful. You aren’t going to change in one day and not she is.

Take in the different perspective and let it have a nice guest house in your mind. Let the long term thinking take a call later.