What's your noise?
Solicris Caluspo Cebu Toastmasters Club
A lot of people are great listeners. It's just that they get distracted too easily. Fellow toastmasters and honored guest, are you sometimes one of them? "I am."
There's a special research at Harvard University on Multiple Intelligence concluded that Social Intelligence, which is, the ability to interact and communicate well with others is the highest paid and the most respected intelligence in our society.
All socially intelligent people are great communicators. So how can we possibly become one? You may ask. Well, we need to become great listeners. That's right! However, this is not very easy. Why? Because oftentimes, there are many things that get in the way of listening which I call – noises. So tonight, I'm going to talk about the four different types of noises that distract us from listening attentively.
First is the "physical noise." These are the noises we hear from our surroundings such as the traffic noise, environmental noise, construction's noise, etcetera. It could also be the unlimited noise of your nagging mother, nagging wife or nagging girlfriend. A lot of people are overly sensitive to this type of noise. Nevertheless, psychologists believe that noise sensitivity could be strongly link to creativity. As a matter of fact, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin were reportedly had this noise sensitivity issues. So if physical noise really bothers you, it cold be because you're a-GENIUS.
Second is the Physiological noise. These are the distractions caused by the physiological processes that take place in our body giving us bodily discomfort. Examples are body pains, the urgent need to poop or urinate, hunger, etcetera. Furthermore, especially for women, we have this PMS (pre-menstrual syndrome) that makes us extremely grouchy like tigresses. Physiological noise is quite a disturbing one. Imagine yourself listening to someone having an extremely upset stomach. Do you think you'd be able to concentrate on listening? I don't think so. You'd probably be looking at the speaker's face like a toilet noise. That's not nice. Turn off your physiological noises.
Third is the emotional noise. It's a type of noise that robs our attention from listening when we are in a negative emotional state. This includes sadness, depression, hatred, etcetera. One time when I was a student someone turned on my angry buttons. I couldn't concentrate on listening. I was looking at the professor but my mind wasn't there. It was somewhere, very busy planning for a revenge. As a result, I understood nothing. And to make matters worse, I got zero on a test. What a great day! Guard your emotions!
Lastly, we also have this mental noise. It's a type of noise that obviously exists in our minds.It doesn't necessarily involves strong emotions although in some cases it does. It's like when you're listening to someone and all of the sudden your mind begins to wander. It could be because you're day dreaming or you're currently having a tug-of-war between your mind and your heart.
Few days ago, I just made a silly mistake while having a class with my student! And this was how our conversation went. "Good morning, Kumi-san! How are you doing today?".
While she was answering 101 things ran through my mind. "Very bad, sensei. It's raining so hard. I hate to work!", she answered. Instantly, I replied," Oh, that's great! And she was like, huh ???? with a confused look. "I mean, yeah, that's great!", said I trying to get away with it. "I love the sound of the raindrops, it's my most favorite soundtrack in the world. What about you, Kumi-san, what's your favorite soundtrack?". Good thing she responded. Be careful of your mental noise.
In a nutshell, there are four diferent types of noises the interferes with our listening ability: physical noise, physiological noise, emotional noise and mental noise. To become a socially intelligent person, we need to become great communicators. To become a great communicator, we need to become great listeners. To become a great listener, we need to get rid of all these noises. Fellow toastmaster's and honored guest, what's your noise? Troubleshoot it!
*Cebu Toastmasters Club meets every 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month at Casino Espanol de Cebu, 7 p.m.