When choosing to pay attention you pay with something valuable
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Paying attention is an effort.
To be polite, to listen, to focus is hard work.
To be thoughtful, considerate, mindful, and caring requires time and consciousness.
Taking time to reflect, to go deeper, to deal with yourself, and to notice what is happening around you is not easy and requires a constant state of awareness and openness.
These are all aspects of what it means to pay attention.
The value of attention
You want your customers, clients, audience to be a growing community of enthusiastic people who love coming back because they feel taken care of and enjoy a unique connection of respect, support, and appreciation. That is because you pay attention to them. You give them something valuable.
Paying attention to your partner, kids, friends, elderly parents means you give them the gift of your time. This is valuable to them. And at some point, you look back and realize how valuable it was to you.
“Time is priceless. But the moments when we have a chance to connect, to be in sync, to bring out the best in each other–that’s time that’s worth cherishing.” — Seth Godin
Paying attention to yourself means becoming aware of yourself. And to be a leader with awareness, to lead an organization or team means to lead with greater demands on yourself in terms of integrity and responsibility.
The value of others
When you step outside your own shoes and try to see a situation as if you’re in the body of someone else around you, you will gain a different perspective and understanding.
You pay attention to the needs of the other person and see how he or she is feeling. We are not used to do that. Unfortunately. We tend to see the world from our bellybutton.
Listening is the most important thing we can do for one another. It shows the person you are listening to that they matter. It honors their dignity.
When done with the intent to not merely get the information you need but rather to meet the needs of the other person and hear how he or she is feeling, listening allows us to connect and better…
