Purposeful News
July 2008, Issue 1 |
Greetings!
Recently I spent some time with my niece and nephew at a local theme park and enjoyed my fill of thrill rides. As I tried to persuade my young niece into riding a "scary" ride with me, she simply said she didn't want to ride. Her words didn't indicate fear. However, her eyes and facial expression told a different story. Her unsaid words came through loud and clear.
Are you hearing what is really being "said" by those around you? How well do you listen to or know yourself? Tuning into the "words" behind the words will open up new doors of understanding. Walk through a door with me in this month's issue. I'd love the company.
Warmly,
Janna
Janna Rust Founder
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Listening...With Intuition
It takes practice to be an outstanding listener. Setting aside internal and external distractions involves both focus and time. Minds buzzing with activity find it difficult to deeply tune in to another person...to listen with intuition.
We listen with intuition when we combine the words, context, body language and emotions of what is being said with what our "gut" says about what we are hearing. Listening in this way helps us better understand others and gives us clues to where we could follow up with a neutral question to help them better process their thoughts.
According to Tony Stoltzfus, in his book "Leadership Coaching", the five most important categories of intuition are these:
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The Person's Own Discernment or insight about the situation
- Turning Points or key actions and events
- Strong emotion or reaction
- Red Flags: things that don't seem right or don't sit right
- Patterns: Cause and effect relationships or repeated outcomes in actions or thinking
Good coaches use these techniques when listening to their clients and they are some of the best listeners around. Why not apply some of the same skills in your own life situations and see how they can benefit you and those around you? Remember, a listening ear is one of the best gifts we can give another.
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Finding Purpose
The first step in any journey is to decide upon the destination. The journey in itself is to be enjoyed, but getting there is also part of the fun.
In life, finding our destination or calling is more difficult to discern than picking a vacation spot, and is also infinitely more important because without a clear overall direction for our life we might never achieve our fullest potential. Without tuning in to our unique purpose, our lives will also be less fulfilling.
One of the ways we can discover our purpose is to examine our past experiences. Try the following exercise this month and see what it reveals to you:
- List 10-15 examples of times in your life when you knew that you were "on purpose" (i.e you felt a sense alignment with your reason for being in the world)
- Write briefly about each of these examples. Where were you? What was so satifisfying about it to you?
- Underline key words and phrases from #2.
- Draft a 2-3 sentence statement using underlined words from #3 describing your purpose.
Once you've completed this exercise, let your purpose statement sit for awhile. We'll come back to it next month with tips for testing it out! |