Today’s post is part 1 of a three part series on active listening written by our friend, Patrick Ewers. Check out Tip #2 here and tip #3 here. Patrick is an executive coach and founder of Mindmaven. You can find him on Twitter @PatrickEwers.
One of the biggest technology-driven problems I see in this society is that our minds are evolving in a way that makes them trained to be exceptionally receptive to interruptions and distracting signals. Our brains become proficient in changing the subject, adjusting what we’re looking at or how we’re perceiving something simply because we hear a notification sound on our phone.
The scary part is that it doesn’t take very long for your brain to make this switch. Very often, in just five seconds we can lose interest in one thing and move onto the next. Disruptions are so prevalent, that you might not even notice it happening. With all of these interruptions, it becomes a real challenge to rewire your brain to hold its focus on one topic.
