Observe - Actively and Objectively

A large part of our lives are made up interaction with others – whether they are with family members, friends, colleagues or strangers. We have to interact with people most of the times. We generally tend to view the world through our subjective eyes. We put ourselves in the center of this universe and perceive everything through these self -adorned blinkers of ours.

To work effectively in this world we have to fine tune the way we interact with people. To understand why people behave in certain ways we need to observe people vey keenly. We need to actively and aggressively observe people. We have to become interested students of human nature. We need to carefully watch people in all their moods, People get enthusiastic at times, irritated during others, angry at times and plain disinterested at times. During these when we observe people in their various moods we need to be as objective as possible.

There will be times when you will note your friend does not share your enthusiasm in a certain thing. Rather than assuming that your friend is being rude try to understand what situation your friend is in and why there is a lack of interest in him. Do not let your own opinion or judgment cloud your observation. Try to be objective in your assessment of another’s behavior and understand it from their view point.

Once we start to observe people who are close to us and those we interact during the daily course of our lives we will learn several valuable things. For one we will learn to adjust our own actions to be able to elicit a better response from others. If we know what the likes and dislikes of the people with whom we interact is we can better suit our actions to them and ensure that their response is as we want them to be.

Also active observation is extremely useful in learning good habits and behaviors from others. We can learn a lot from people who are successful in life not just by way of money or fame but those who know how to handle pressures in life. We can use them as role models of our life.
So we should make a habit of keenly observing people and learning things from them. If we don’t let our judgments come in the way of our observation we will learn a lot of valuable lessons from them.