“Sometimes, the most influential thing we can do is listen.” - Bob Burg
It was such a pleasure to listen back to my conversion with the wonderful Jack Pransky from two years ago. Jack is an International 3 Principles Consultant, Speaker, Trainer, Practitioner, and Author of numerous books, including one of my favorite 3 Principles books, “Somebody Should Have Told Us!”
At the time of our conversation, I had just returned home from a training I had taken with Jack, his partner Nicole Beasley in Peru. When I first heard about the training, I was intrigued. Machu Picchu was always a place I had wanted to visit. However, finances were tight, and I told myself I couldn’t afford to go. But something kept pulling me towards this opportunity to visit a place that was high on my bucket list, combined with the opportunity to spend time with Jack. So, I followed my wisdom and decided that this was the perfect way to celebrate my sixtieth birthday. A gift to myself that I will always cherish.
The trip was beyond my imagination in every way. Not only was it a pleasure to spend twelve days in the company of Jack and Nicole, but that combined with the magnificent beauty of Peru made it an all-around magical experience. Between our daily sessions with Jack, we had plenty of time to explore all the treasures Peru has to offer.
Besides the exhilaration of the day we spent on Machu Picchu, there was one other day that stood out in my mind. It was the day we were gathered in the lush gardens of our hotel in the Sacred Valley, listening to Jack give a talk on deep listening. As part of our training, Jack asked us to pair up and find a quiet place in the garden to practice deep listening with each other. The objective of the exercise was to hold space as we listened deeply to our partners sharing about an issue they were having without interjecting for a minimum of thirty minutes.
I had the pleasure of partnering with the lovely Lindsey Reed. I will never forget how it felt to have someone listen to me without interruption for that amount of time — having Lindsey hold space for me allowed me to hear myself and my inner wisdom. As I meandered through my story of the challenges I was facing, clarity began to emerge. I began to see that the problem I was talking about wasn’t nearly as insurmountable as I had thought. A peace descended on me, and with the guidance of my inner wisdom, “the problem” that seemed so real just thirty minutes earlier began to melt away.
It was also a wonderful reminder that all too often, we innocently jump into rescue mode when we see someone we care about struggling, not realizing that they have everything they need inside of them too. We share our wisdom as if it is a one-size-fits-all, forgetting that each one of us has access to our own wisdom that is specific to us and our individual needs and wants. When we jump in with our unsolicited advice, we rob the other person of the opportunity to access their wisdom and experience their own insights.
It might feel counterintuitive to hold our tongue and not offer our advice, but holding the space for one another to explore our feelings and access our own inner wisdom is a gift. It allows us to connect to that deeper part of ourselves that we know we can always count on. The place where we know that our inner wisdom is providing us with the love, support, and guidance we need to navigate this often turbulent, ever-changing life we live.
With love and appreciation, Del 💕