#12. Meet People Where They Are
You have to meet people where they are. You just can not make any progress until you do.
Sometimes it is hard to understand where someone is. Sometimes we are in such a different place that we tend to stop listening. We get so focused on trying to get the person to where we are that we can’t hear when they tell us where they are.
When you don’t meet people where they are, you do not listen to them, and they can not hear you. Walls come up, defenses set in, the conversation becomes a stalemate, or worse, a battle. No progress is made. Both parties walk away frustrated and the original goal of coming to a common understanding is not met.
People truly do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. You have to listen. You have to hear where they are. You have to be present for the person you are talking to. In truth, when you listen, you have all the power, all the control. When you hear what the other person is saying, you hear where they are, you hear what they need, what they want; then, and only then, can you help them.
Communication is so extremely important. It is what relationship and life and love is built on.
When we argue, when we fight, when we don’t listen, when we dismiss, we lose, they lose, no one wins.
In truth, it only takes a moment.
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