The first lesson in life for me (I don’t know about you) was to learn how to listen and cogitate.
The word listen, as we all know, is not simply to hear. Listening allows you to feel yourself in one’s life and by putting yourself into the person’s shoe and aware of his/her feelings. Have you ever wonder why God created human with two ears and one mouth? Perhaps, in His thoughts, man should listen more than he speaks. I am not saying that you should not voice out your own opinion, but as far as the world is concerned, those with profound thoughts, are those who are successful in life and profound thoughts only comes from those who listen profoundly. Not convinced?
For instances, Jesus Christ and The Prophet of Muhammad, Mother Teresa, or Mahatma Gandhi. These were the icons of the world who found the true meaning of life when they really listen, or perhaps, they didn’t find the true meaning, they provide us the meaning of life. I am not trying to be religious here, in fact, I am an atheist. I don’t believe in God still, and well, some of you might pity me, but I felt much more comfortable if I’d take my time to seek for the best choice.
Now, back to listening. Listening was taught by almost all religions in the world; Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, you name it. I am not saying these religion had the whole concept of how to listen, but they teach us by showing their icons what they had done for human civilization by listening. It’s written in all the books of great virtues. And to me, regardless of what your origin is, whether you are a Chinese, African, Jew or Malay, listening is the key to success.
And by the way,
“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.” By Albert Einstein.
See? The true meaning is not literally keeping your mouth shut all year round, but simply to listen and cogitate more. If the smartest man in the history of mankind was wrong, you might as well skip this article. Sadly, we exist in a society where we only hear, but hardly listen. Are we not? Ernest Hemingway said: “I like to listen, I have learned a great deal from listening carefully, most people never listen.” It is because hearing bears no responsibility. While listening will have yourself included into that particular situation creating virtual stress to your mind. (if that situation is a negative one)
If you seek for peace, for wisdom and maybe even for wealth, then listening might be your ultimate path of towards what you want. There are not many people in this world who can do it, and that is why successful people are so rare. If everybody would have truly listened, then everybody would have been successful.
RollingHotdog 