Create Personal Power by Being Fully Present

 I sat at a restaurant with a young lady I had invited to dinner. She spent a good bit of that time with her nose in her smart phone, texting.

Anything like that ever happened to you? How did you feel?

Maybe you never experienced that situation specifically but what about those times when you knew the other person was only half-listening to what you were saying? Or were checking their phone every five minutes?

Let’s turn it around, though. Have you ever found yourself only half-listening, thinking about what you are going to say next rather than what the other person was saying to you? Or planning what you were going to do after the conversation was over?

Can the other person in that “conversation” tell that you are not fully present?

Yes, of course. Absolutely.

Now, the other side of the coin. Ever experienced someone listening intently to every word you said? Or asking you about that conversation later, even much later, proving they had in fact listened very carefully?

How did that make you feel?

Well, that happened to me.  I had a conversation with a pastor about some details in my life and months later he asked me how that situation had turned out. Wow!

Unfortunately, encounters like that occur far too infrequently!

Listen, making yourself fully present with others when they speak leaves them feeling heard and important. (My husband, Bud, likes to say, “Most people don’t distinguish between the feeling of being heard and the feeling of being loved.”)

So here’s a great verse from Isaiah 50:4 (NIV):

The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.

Listening. So powerful. Do it. Listen to each person as though you are “one being instructed.” I guarantee it will make you more trusted, more influential and more powerful with people.

Then when you speak they will be more ready to listen!

So here’s my challenge: see if you can catch yourself, even once, half-listening to someone (spouse and kids included)! Stop, fully tune in them, and see what happens!