Are you listening?

I was always proud of my multitasking skills. I can watch TV, blog, chat and talk on the phone all at the same time, among other things that I do simultaneously. With my previous job, I was able to handle meetings, reports, client calls and still having enough energy for a nightcap. However, I'm starting to be bothered by my inability to remember things from the past that I'm beginning to think that multitasking may have caused more harm than good for me.

I think I was brought up in an environment where you were made to believe that they're listening to you when they're actually thinking about something else. They nod and say "it's alright" or "OK, and then?" and before you know it you find yourself alone with your thoughts and with no one to talk to. And so I realize that I breezed through school daydreaming a lot, and that I often attended to my responsibilities while listening to other people's woes, lest I be accused of being an absentee friend. I now look back at those conversations with regret, because it's either I may have given halfhearted advice, or they saw right through me, got insulted and decided to seek solace from somebody else.

Now there is someone in my life who really takes time to listen to absolutely everything I have to say, but I'm having a hard time doing the same thing, and that hurts him. I can't discount the fact that I'm attending to so many things at work and in school, but he has a point in saying that I can actually beg off and say "Give me some time to finish this up then let's talk." I guess I just got used to accomodating everyone and everything at the same time because that's what I've learned from people around me. I thought everyone and everything can be satisfied in that manner, but people really do need 100% of your attention; otherwise, it's not communication at all.

In the dizzying frenzy of the workaday world, how many times have you sat down with someone important in your life and just listened completely, stripping yourself of any biases, inhibitions and the worries that trouble you day in and day out?

Who among the people in your life can drop everything to give you the attention you don't think you need (but you actually do)?

Say a prayer of thanks for the people who take time to listen to you, because in this day and age, you're less likely to meet more of them. Learn to give your 100% attention to anyone who needs it, because it enables the other person to pay it forward.