How to be a good listener

To be a good listener, you need to...
- concentrate on the person talking
- make eye contact with the person who's speaking to you, or nod your head every 10 seconds
- stop what you are doing (unless it's very important), and just listen

Listening is one of the skills that people need to live, and to socialize. Without good listening skills, some people might exclude you from their group or won't even talk to you at all. As a result, being a good listener is very important. Being a good listener isn't very hard, people just need to pay attention and concentrate on the person talking.

Sometimes when a person is trying to tell you something, you might not be interested in what the person is about to tell you. In this case, just nod your head every 10 seconds and make yourself seem like you already know about it. Unless they ask you questions about what they just told you like a teacher would (they probably won't), you'll be fine. If what you are listening to is rubbish but you don't want to offend the speaker, there's another skill that you need. It's called "changing the subject." I'll explain this later when I get a chance.

Some people say, that people's maximum concentration span is about a minute. Whether this is true or not, it doesn't matter. Whether you are in a class listening to a lecture or just talking to your friend, you just need to be able to pick up the main points. For example, if you are a soldier and you are about to go to your very first war, just listen to the key things that your captain tells you. Those things might be, always keep your helmets on, or always check if you have enough food and water. These are the things that you basically need to survive.

There isn't a real guide to how to be a good listener. Most people just know but for some people, they just can't sit still or cannot have their mouth shut for five minutes. Sometimes it's a good idea to just listen to what someone else has to say, because it might be an answer to a question on a test or it might even save your life one day. You never know...