Coffee Cups, People, and Magic

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 4 Comments

I've been thinking . . .

about magic.

Last November I found journal on a bookshelf in my hallway. It was 10 years old.

In a short passage, I’d remarked on how I overlook my coffee cup, though I interact with it daily. I thought about the people I overlook in the same way.

I wrote about that last year, about what happens when I remember not to do that.

coffee cup

I listen now. I listen. I’ve learned that magic happens when I listen. That people show me, tell me wonderful things about themselves. It’s as if they wait for someone who values what they say and then, they bring out their gifts and give them freely.

I look at my coffee cup. I used to think it was tool. Now I know it holds what I decide — a magic sweet as life.

This weekend I intend to listen with all my might.

Because I was right. Magic is sweet as life.

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Bloggy Question 60: Are You Listening?

Filed Under Bloggy Questions, Successful Blog | 5 Comments

Did You Hear What You Just Said?

If schools everywhere were as much about listening to ourselves as they are about listening to our teachers, how do you suppose the world would be changed?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Bloggy Question 55: It’s My Vacation!

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Change the World: Knowing When Not to Listen

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 22 Comments

Be the Teacher

Change the World!

Listening. We all want to be heard. It’s often a gift to listen when someone needs to talk. But not always . . .

Sometimes we talk just to know that we’re here. Sometimes we rattle on without thinking about what we’re saying. Sometimes we talk to fill space or win favor. Sometimes we talk just to know we’re okay or to prove that we’re good enough.

I heard a parable about a teacher and a student. Sometimes I’m the teacher. Sometimes I’m not. It’s easy to be the student. I want to remember the story, so I pass it on.

On beautiful day centuries ago, a teacher was walking down a dirt road in the country, thinking teacherly thoughts.

A student, filled with excitement, ran up to the teacher saying, “Master, I have news you should know, important news, from the city.”

The teacher smiled at the student and slowed so the student could catch up and catch his breath. As they walked together, the teacher softly spoke.

“May I ask a few questions first?”

“Oh yes, of course, Teacher, yes,” the student gushed.

“This news you bring — does it tell a of a good deed?”

“Oh no, Teacher. Someone has done something wrong.”

“Do you know the person yourself?’

“No, Teacher. I don’t, but the person who told me does.”

“Do you know that the story is true?”

“My friend swears it is so.”

The teacher walked silently for a while so that the student might hear his own answers. When the teacher spoke again, it was almost a whisper.

“You wish to tell me bad news about someone you do not know about something you don’t know is true. This news is not important.”

The teacher asked three simple questions and knew whether to listen.

Those three questions make it easy to decide.

We can choose not to listen.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Change the World!.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.

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About People, Black Holes, and Stars

Filed Under Business Life, Successful Blog | Leave a Comment

The Universal Human, Hmmmm

We need a black hole with a gravitational pull so powerful to counteract our all too human ability to over-value our uniqueness. The minute we think we’re stars, we’re not.

Read the whole feature in today’s Blog Herald by clicking the logo.

The Blog Herald

It’s about blogging and real life.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Enough About Me, Let’s Talk About What You Think

Filed Under Customer Think, Successful Blog | 17 Comments

That Couldn’t Be Us Or Could It?

Customer Think Logo

I share a joke with a friend in California. It’s like a script. It goes like this.

I call him up. He answers.

I say, “Hi, Eddie, how am I?”

He replies, “Oh, you’re fine. What do you think of me?”

I tell him he’s wonderful.

Then he says, “Enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What do you think about my sweater?”

That’s when we laugh to think that we’re not like the people who actually do that.

This morning at Poynter Online something made me realize how it is to do what Eddie I joke about.

Butch Ward gave five New Year’s Resolutions. It’s number 2 that brought this thought home to me. His second resolution was talk to your readers. My thought was I do that. He offered fine advice on ways to engage in dynamic conversation. Then Mr. Ward made a suggestion for this New Year’s conversation . . .

Don’t ask him what he wants you to put in his newspaper or on his news broadcast. Instead, ask what he does. What she thinks. Then you decide how your newsroom can be more relevant to their world.

That’s when I realized it.

Those standard, customer-survey questions sound like “What do you think of my sweater? What do you think of ME?”

Sure, we need to ask how we’re doing, but those can’t be the only questions, or we’ll never know our readers.

Authentic values aren’t revealed by survey questions.

Relationships and understanding come from listening to what folks want to talk about — dreams, desires, unexpressed needs and wishes — what they find marvelous, annoying, heartwarming, concerning, breathtaking. At least, that’s my experience.

But hey, enough about me. Let’s talk about what you think.

What do find worth spending thoughts and words on?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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