One of the challenging things that I deal with in myself is that I actually watch and listen when people talk. I think about what they say and what they do, and then I act accordingly. If someone says they don't like a certain thing, then I try not to do that thing.
If someone says they feel left out, I do what I can to include them more and more. I like to help, and that gets me in trouble too because a lot of people don't want my help. Often, people will say things in passing and I pick up on it and I react to it and I plan and act accordingly.
And then they act surprised. And they say, that's not what I meant at all. And I have to explain, it's what you said. You were very clear and very adamant. To me, actually paying attention by listening and watching is respect.
I don't see a lot of respect from other people nowadays toward me or towards anyone around them. I was told recently and I've read in a couple of places that in our society our attention span has fallen below the attention span of a goldfish.
Scientists have studied goldfish and through their observations concluded that goldfish have an attention span of about nine seconds. With our devices and our screens and other distractions all around us scientists have determined that humans in our society can only pay attention for about 8.4 seconds. Less than a goldfish.
I'm not a goldfish and I'm not going to let a goldfish be better at paying attention than me.
https://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/
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