I’ve been wanting to write this for a while now, but I keep waiting for the right moment, which never seems to come, so here goes nothing.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but the world is becoming more of a debating ground. Everyone listens to something just to argue that they disagree or debunk what they heard or it's always something about verbal violence.
Each time I read something or listen to two people talking about the same thing, the one thing I realize is that they always have different opinions. And to be honest, I think it’s beautiful. There’s beauty in diverse opinions.
For example, let’s say we are talking about the color red, and I think it’s a really elegant color, but you think it’s too exotic. See? Same topic but different opinions. You can’t tell me it’s not amazing how our brains are wired to work differently.
But what I don’t get is why we have to argue about what we think. Why do we have to be on each other’s necks trying to make each other’s opinions feel so little? I seriously don’t get it. But the whole point of this post is that I think it’s very important to listen to understand. I have grown to understand that when we say we are all from different backgrounds, it’s like a big deal.
It means you waking at 6am and making your bed right after that would probably sound so weird to someone who wakes up at 9am and doesn’t even bother to look at his/her bed. And there’s nothing wrong with that person. So if you understand where someone is coming from, where someone’s perspectives stem from? It makes it very easy.
You don’t agree that red is elegant? Fine. You can just disagree with me, but you don’t have to argue or try to make my opinion sound irrelevant. And to do this, you have to understand why my opinions differ from yours or the basis on which I have that opinion or why they are even like that in the first place.
One thing I’ve realized is that listening makes you more knowledgeable. You get to learn so much just from listening, and you get to understand a lot of things too. Instead of being in a hurry to disagree and argue right after listening, why don’t you take time to understand? This helps with how you relate with people and even deal with situations.
Images are mine
