Did You Hear Me?

Did You Hear Me? How many times did your mother, or some one else, say to you "Did You Hear Me"? If you lived in a household like mine, you heard that more often than you liked especially when you were a teenager.

Now, you’re 75 years old and people are still saying to you “did you hear me”? You say to them “don’t yell at me I’m not deef. Oh yes, you are not deef nor have you ever been, you’re only doing what you have done for years. It’s called selective hearing. How many of us use selective hearing in our daily life? How many of us even realize that we use it as often as we do?

Maybe your words didn’t come out the way you intended them to be. So, when the person you directed them to just “tuned you out” and there you were, sitting with no answer and no response. You decide to try another tactic. You speak louder and then what happened? “I heard you the first time”, was the response. “Then, why didn’t you answer me?” “Because I didn’t understand what you were saying”. That’s another scenario that we seem to hear, far too often.

Intent: The true meaning of a communication. “I meant to tell you that you’re a jerk, but I didn’t say it”. Your intent was not directly expressed because to do so would mean that you would generate a big problem between you and the other person. Today, we have to be very careful of what we say and do. People, it seems, are looking for something to bring us down just to boost their own egos. Some people are always looking for ways to make other people believe that they’re important and that they are special. The reality of it all is that they are already important and special. There is no need for any kind of special action by the person to try and prove it.

Some would say that it is because of the fast pace of living and that we have so much stress during our workday that it spills over into our life outside of work. Whatever the cause, we must start being more alert to what we say and do. We are responsible for everything that comes out of our months and for sure, if we are not careful, it will jump up and bit us on the backside.

It is very important that we make our verbal intents known so that there is no misunderstanding. So that we will not have people saying to us Did, You Hear Me?