I recently attended a luncheon for business people and as I looked around my table I was reminded again of the power of one’s individual life force. The dictionary defines life force as “the spirit or energy that animates living creatures; the soul.” 

There were a total of six people at this table including myself, but only one other that exhibited what I would call any real life force. I include myself in the count because I was working to make sure I was animated and that my energy was reaching out to the rest of the people. I also made sure as did the other women at the table to listen with animation. 

Listening is such an important skill and never gets enough attention. 

As an actor I learned a long time ago the importance of listening. Not only in the camera filming the person speaking, but (as we all have observed) it is also covers the person or persons reaction to the words being spoken to them.

Listening is an art unto itself. Really listening requires getting out of our heads and making the person speaking more important than our own thoughts and what we want to say in response.

How many times have you begun to tell a story about an experience and the person “listening” jumps in and says something like...

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