Effective Listening Is Better than Talking

            We have two ears and one mouth we should use them proportionally (Cain, 2013).  God gave us two ears but only one mouth isn’t this strange. Does it mean something; it is proportionality between speaking and listening. The argument is certainly not new; there are many perspectives to it, the historical perspective, religious, political, education, social, physiological and much more.  The issue is that most of the people talk more than they listen. Now what is the problem in that, of course, there is nothing wrong and it is right of everyone to talk. No law is restricting you to stop talking. But it depicts some personality features like when you talk more it means you are right and others are wrong. Talking more doesn't give enough space to others to speak their opinion.  If we put same arguments in a bigger picture of social impact, the following results come out. People asserts their own opinion, I am right behavior, very less ability to absorb knowledge, critical of each other, and an intolerant society. To be a good listener as an essential habit in our life will improve our relationship, learning, knowledge, tolerance, positivity and we will become a socially better person.

The effective listening is an active process. There are three basic steps to it, hearing, understanding, and judging. When one is sure that what he has listened then it is time to judge it and create sense out of it.

Adopting listening as a habit will help us to become a better person.  There might be many definitions for a better person.  But there are some very common social notions which define it i.e. the one who are good in understanding social norms are better than others. One of the advantages with listening is that it improves the learning curve. Now if someone has the ability to listen he/she can easily adopt the social reflections/norms and follow it and will be considered much better than those who always assert their own opinion on others.  Wisdom and knowledge have been considered as the main source of goodness for a long time in our history, and listening is the key to it.

All religions/historical manuscript promote a better society and most of them emphasize on listening. Can really a lot of good listeners in society will confirm a better society? To argument on this question let us visit one of the oldest manuscripts and books. The oldest books and manuscripts are from religious teachings.  Control of anger is considered as a good attribute, Bible says My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry (Bible, 2006).  .  In a similar way in Quran, it is said When the Quran is recited to you, listen to it with attention and keep silent. It may be that you also are blessed with mercy (Ali, 2005). It is said that silence contains the same words as listening. Buddha's teaching says that silence is the key to truth. The true wisdom is the only way to shape a good society and it can only be attained by listening and absorbing knowledge.

It is often said that speaking and talking build confidence and confidence is considered as key to success. But these thoughts are from people who are still unaware of the power of silence and listening.    

Listening is more important than talking as it has more profound effect on our personality. It helps us to learn more effectively, it reduces anger, and finally make us a better part of society.