Earlier this week, I said to a valued colleague “No-one ever listens to me” – I think I had a particularly challenging conversation with a teenager in my mind at the time (and of course, I do know that teenagers can be prone to not listening to any adult).
Quite correctly, my colleague immediately countered with a meta model challenge. “What, no-one…?”
As intended, that caused me to stop in my tracks and think…and because I had various teenager conversations running through my head, I evaluated, in the moment, that I was only listened to 25% of the time!!!
So, having declared my ‘statement’ in public, I then spent much of this week seeking examples to prove it…and of course, the universe has delivered plenty of scenarios to prove me right…good old RAS!
Of course, now I am aware that’s what I have been doing, it is time to change tack and flip the RAS around, so I notice all the times I am listened to – redress the balance, challenge the statement and alter my perception…one that was initially created on the basis of a few conversations with one teenager!
I bring this up for two reasons:
As a reminder that we get what we focus on…so focus wisely!
As a reminder that we are all fallible – with my NLP skills, I could have halted this pattern a lot quicker…and yet I am human, and in the flurry of every day life, I sometimes forget!
Time to be compassionate with myself for tripping up this week…and time to create a strategy for remembering more quickly in future, methinks!