Listening is different than hearing

Earlier this week, I took part in Brazen Careerist’s Network Roulette event to help mentor beginning bloggers.  The hour-long session was an opportunity for new and novice bloggers to talk with those who have experience.  As much fun as it was to lend a hand, I never thought I’d come away with advice as well.

That leads to the title of this blog post.

Are we really hearing what people are writing, tweeting, and saying?

There was a great scene in the movie “White Men Can’t Jump,” where Wesley Snipes character says to Woody Harrelson, “Just because you‘re listening to (Jimi Hendrix) doesn’t mean you‘re hearing (Jimi)!”

Annabel Candy was one of the folks I had the chance to chat with on Feb. 8.  She runs a great site on how to be a successful blogger (she’s one in her own right). She said something that I listened to during our three-minute conversation.  It wasn’t until a day later that I “heard” what she was saying.

What she said, basically, was that if  you want to take your blog to the next level, consider buying the name.  I was thinking, “Wait, but my blog is good!” I wasn’t listening. Annabel was telling me the perfect way to improve what I am (hopefully) doing already.  I hear you now, Annabel.

Today, we are so quick to turn around information and get it out to the public. We may want that quick retweet or immediate response to a blog post.  However, the more time we take to actually hear or digest what someone has written or said, the more we can understand.

Hey, I’m guilty of it.  I like to retweet friends’ blog posts and tweets.  Do I really read or hear what they are saying? Yes. But, I could open my “ears” further and really hear what they mean.

What are your thoughts? Drop a comment below.