We live in the age of information.
Infinite perspectives on nearly any idea, topic, or approach to life are available to us at the click of a button.
If we want to learn how to become successful, lead a good life, experience fulfillment, or grow as an individual, there is no shortage of people telling us how.
Beyond the internet, we are surrounded by advice from family members, parents, grandparents, friends, peers, and colleagues.
Everyone has ideas about how life works and how we should live it.
So who do we listen to?
Listening itself is a skill with an immense amount of depth, and the vast majority of people are untrained in it. (a topic for another time)*
But to establish a baseline for this conversation, we can begin with a simple principle:
Listen to people who have what you want.
Listen to People Who Have What You Want
If we want to learn something, we should seek out people who have physical proof in their lives that what they are teaching has worked for them.
If we want to learn a skill, we should learn from someone who has mastered that skill.
If we want to develop a certain characteristic, we should learn from someone who embodies it.
If we want to create a certain kind of life, we should listen to someone who is already living it.
This is the foundation of mentorship and apprenticeship.
Throughout history, the most effective, efficient, and powerful way to learn anything has been to find someone who has mastered the trade, skill, art, or way of life and learn directly from them.
They do not merely understand what they are teaching intellectually, as most teachers do...
Their lives provide proof that they have applied it successfully.
This distinction is important because intellectual knowing is ignorance compared to realization.
Therefore, we should not blindly follow someone simply because other people consider them successful.
We should become clear on what we want and listen to people who possess or embody that.
Be Conscious of What You Allow Into Your Mind
There are infinite people and perspectives available to us.
Through social media, YouTube, books, and the internet, we are constantly bombarded with information.
Because of this, we must become conscious of what we choose to allow into our minds.
If we continually absorb perspectives from people who do not have what we want, those who live lives we do not want to live…
These perspectives will lead us down paths that do not serve us.
This applies to people online, teachers, authors of books, but it also applies to the people in our personal lives.
Friends, peers, family members, and parents will all offer advice based on their own understanding of life.
But before internalizing that advice, we should ask:
Does this person live a life I want to live?
Do they have what I want?
Is there physical proof in their life that what they are teaching or saying has worked for them?
We must be conscious about who we take advice from, who we learn from, and which perspectives we allow into our conscious mind for processing.
Listen to Everyone
This is where the conversation becomes paradoxical.
On one hand, we should listen to people who have what we want.
On the other hand, we should listen to everyone.
As we expand our awareness, we begin to realize that every person has something to offer.
Regardless of their status, socioeconomic position, circumstances, or perceived differences from us, every person has lived experiences that have given them a unique perspective that is different from ours.
A homeless person on the street may understand something about life that we have never considered.
Someone who lives completely differently from us may carry a perspective that expands our awareness and benefits us immensely.
We do not know what we do not know.
There will always be something another person knows that we don’t.
So we should practice listening to everyone with an open mind and a genuine desire to understand why they believe what they believe and how they arrived at their conclusions.
Listening does not mean that we must adopt their perspective or align our lives with it.
We can listen openly, receive whatever value is available, and then consciously decide whether the perspective serves the life we want to create.
Everyone deserves an open ear because everyone has something to offer.
The Paradox of Listening
We must remain open to learning from everyone while also being extremely conscious of who we surround ourselves with and who we regularly allow to influence our minds.
This is the paradox.
Every person may have something valuable to offer, but that does not mean every person should have continuous access to our attention and energy.
There is a difference between listening to understand someone and repeatedly surrounding ourselves with perspectives and people that do not serve us.
We can respect the value within every person without allowing every person’s way of seeing life to shape our own.
Energy Is Contagious
Another reason we must consciously choose who we listen to is that energy is contagious.
When we continually listen to people who embody pessimism and view life through a negative lens, we allow their ideas and energy into our minds and our bodies.
Our thoughts create our reality.
So the people we surround ourselves with affect more than our income or external success.
They affect our energy and the entire trajectory of our lives.
If we surround ourselves with positive people who are optimistic, growing, expanding their awareness, building, creating, and working to make a positive impact, their energy affects us.
Their passion is contagious.
Their creativity is contagious.
Their desire to grow is contagious.
But the opposite is also true.
If we continually surround ourselves with people who are negative, fearful, anxious, worried, stuck, pessimistic, and unconsciously competent* at focusing on what they fear, hate, or do not want, their energy affects us as well.
Click here for in depth exploration of *unconscious competence*
It becomes increasingly difficult to consciously focus on light, love, positivity, abundance, prosperity, bliss, and joy while constantly allowing fear and negativity into our minds and our screens of consciousness.
Like attracts like.
Energy attracts energy.
So we should consciously choose to listen to and surround ourselves with people who embody love, joy, fulfillment, creativity, growth, and light.
This is how we begin to improve our energy, raise our vibration, and attract more people, circumstances, situations, and events into our lives that embody the same or similar energy.
Who Do You Listen To?
If you want to learn something, begin by listening to people who have what you want.
Learn from people whose lives provide physical proof that what they are teaching has worked for them.
At the same time, remain open to listening to everyone.
Every person has something to offer.
Everyone carries perspectives shaped by experiences we have not lived, and there will always be something another person knows that we don’t.
But openness does not require unconscious exposure.
We must choose carefully who we surround ourselves with, whose perspectives we repeatedly consume, and what information we allow into our conscious minds for processing.
Listen openly.
Learn from everyone.
But consciously choose your friends, mentors, your environment, and the energy that regularly enters your life.
In an age of infinite information, who we listen to matters more than ever.