One more piece of information can change everything

Let me begin by sharing with you how I am feeling these days.

• I’m frustrated. “Ok, you may say, about what?”
• I’m frustrated at not being able to travel. “yes, we all are, I can identify”.
• I’m frustrated at not being able to travel as I am nearly 5,000 miles from home. “ok, that’s a long way”.
• I’m frustrated at not being able to travel as my three sons live there and I haven’t seen them since before the pandemic started. “Yeah, that feels tough”

Now these are minor examples, as each new piece of information changes things only a little for you the reader.

However, today I am simply sharing with you a lesson taught me as I learned to be a coach and to listen actively, and that is that “one more piece of information can change everything”. The crux of this is to listen with the intent to understand listen and listen so more so that you can fully understand what is going on for the other person.

I do always try to do this, but I also fail sometimes, I may listen just enough to make assumptions around the situation and then form and express an opinion. I did this at the start of this year in a relaxed chat with a dear friend around a subject I had no idea of the full situation. We were in flowing conversation…