Do you ever give thought to your personal prejudices? Not the race, creed, color, gender orientation prejudices, but all those prejudices and predilections that predispose you to think and respond a certain way—sometimes they are even one in the same.

My most annoying prejudice/predilection, and the one that has brought me the most grief, stems from my hearing—or should I say my lack of hearing.

I hear the sound of voices, but I have difficulty turning those sounds into understandable speech. This is exacerbated by the speed at which people speak and the lack of good diction. In other words, to my hearing, people talk very fast and mumble.

Because of that I tend to latch on to those I can hear, cutting them too much slack, rationalizing the red flags and, worst of all, trusting them because I can hear/understand them.

Stupid, but I’ve fallen into that trap more times than I can count and it has cost me time, money and pain.

My solution has been to build up an ultra conscious sensitivity to people’s speech patterns; it doesn’t necessarily stop my mad rush, but at least I’m conscious of the risk.

By the same token, that awareness keeps me from passing people by who have great value, but are difficult to hear.

Whether you call them prejudices or not, you would be wise to build your awareness of them. Even the piddily little ones can keep you from hiring great people, finding the love of your life and moving forward on dozens of other fronts without your even realizing it.

So try taking a step back, watch yourself as you go about your life; actively listen to what you say and think about why you said it. Recognize your auto responses; know what immediately puts you at ease, like my hearing, and consider how much that influences your attitude.

Yes, it’s work, but, as with any kind of work, when it’s done well, the payoff more than rewards the effort on so many levels.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/688571884/

This entry was posted on Monday, November 15th, 2010 at 1:15 am and is filed under Personal Growth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Tags: awareness, prejudice
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