Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
PAUL SIMON
Do you hear only what you want to hear?
Or, are you willing to potentially listen to the things that you do not wish to hear?
Many are willing to listen all day long to exactly what they want to hear, and tune out everything else. It is more natural and common than you might at first, imagine. Witness the massive rise of faux news stations who (under threat of perjury) admit that they are not news, but rather entertainment.
Selective hearing extends across the spectrum of life experiences. It is entirely dependent upon that which you do not wish to know or acknowledge.
At some point, we all become an ostrich, with our head in the ground, hoping to tune out the parts of life which we do not wish to process.
It may be medical information that tells you about a specific condition, dietary information that is telling what you should and should not consume, political information which is contrary to your beliefs, religious information that is disparate from your own faith, and much more.
Other times, selective hearing is used to counter all of the obstacles and negativity that is continuously threatening to drown us in our own quest to prevail above all of the obvious obstacles.
In that situation, selective hearing is a way of defending oneself against naysayers whose negativity will threaten to thwart dreams, hopes and aspirations by drowning them in the perceived perspective of those who cannot see your vision as vividly as you.
People become set in their ways. This makes them even less likely to genuinely hear what you have to say. When your thoughts contradict that which they know (or believe they know) to be true, you are facing an uphill battle getting them to hear anything to the contrary.
When you are either the party who does not want to hear or the party who cannot get through to someone who does not want to hear, I believe you are faced with very limited choices. If you do not want to hear, you might allow yourself the option of at least becoming more familiar with that which you are closed-minded towards.
If you are trying to get through to someone who does not want to hear you, you may try an alternate path of expressing your thoughts in a non confrontational manner and constructing your statements as non absolute by putting a gentle buffer into the opening of the sentence, like… “Is it possible that..” Or “What if…” Or “Perhaps there is a chance that…”
If all you receive in response is the sounds of silence, you may reply, “You do not know… Silence like a cancer grows. Hear my words that I may teach you. Take my arms that I might reach you.”
Happy Tuesday!
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