We seldom ponder why is it that we think about something in a particular way, or what leads us into believing that something is true or not and who planted the seed to the thought in our mind. Answering such questions lead us to a lot of soul-searching and that exactly was my experience of listening and drawing insights from the conversations between seven beautiful people and Ms Sue Stockdale, who bestowed me with this opportunity.
I realised that to understand someone and their perspective, it is imperative to listen and to listen deeply without thinking about what to reply after they’ve finished.
The project taught me a life skill that most of the people in the world spend their entire life struggle with: Listening. I realised that to understand someone and their perspective, it is imperative to listen and to listen deeply without thinking about what to reply after they’ve finished. If we pay close attention, every problem in our life can be viewed essentially as a people’s problem. It is not our job but the relationship with our colleagues that give us a tough time, it is not our family but our specific family members, so on and so forth. Managing our relationships can solve all our life issues and for that, it is essential to master the art of listening!
I learnt that there is no set path for life that one must follow to be significant. Our paths are different and we must find our own in time in our own way! We have an inherent perspective towards life that gets clouded by the dynamics around us. Things get clear once we start exploring by cross-questioning ourselves at times when we pass judgements without any clear logic backing them. There can nothing be more motivating or demotivating than the words that we say to ourselves when we are alone and to be fundamentally right at that very time becomes crucial. It is okay to ask for the help of someone who can give you a new perspective!
To conclude, I’d sum it all up using the key highlights that I could identify from the conversations, that helped people move forward in their life- to get balance in our lives. It is important to get a varied set of experiences as we motivate ourselves through risky situations that our destiny puts in front of us, which are only for our good. By introspecting from time to time and staying optimistic we learn the most important of all- believing in ourselves.
Written by 20 year old Indian student – Shikhar Agrawal after a project to listen to seven episodes of the Access to Inspiration podcast series.
