If you want to be heard, start off with an open mind.
If you want to be seen, start off by opening your eyes.
Sometimes I walk through town and see so many people walking around minding their own business, buried deep in their own minds. Their body language reflects that by closing down for everyone else. Some of them might be looking at their phones, lots of them with some kind of headphones covering every surrounding sound from their ears.
I’m not saying this is bad in general.
Even I like to hear some great audio books or podcasts at times.
But what happens if you make this closing down a habit?
They say it takes 21 days to create a habit and 90 days to create a lifestyle.
Even though these numbers have been discussed by social psychologists, there is some truth to it.
As social beings, we feed our brain and our emotions by sharing and listening to others, by giving and receiving feedback, be it verbal or non-verbal. We get inspiration by looking at our surroundings and looking people into the eyes.
When we start closing down to others, we will miss a lot of valuable interactions which we need to expand our mental boundaries.
We will also decrease our ability to start a conversation or keep it going after initiation.
Our brain will tell us to go back into our cocoon as soon as something unexpected happens.
As we have learned that we are in our comfort zone when we are within our world by ourselves.
Everyone of us has so much experience to share, so many things to say. We all want to be heard.
Therefore, we have to practice that, if possible, every day.
Open up your mind! Actively listen to others!
Open up your eyes! Raise your head and look at the world and the people around you!
They might be your next inspiration for achieving amazing things.
Try it! You will see how it works!