Listening: What We Learned From Our Date With The Chick-fil-A Cow

Ever since I got married my husband and I started a tradition of going food shopping on weeknights instead of leaving it for the weekend.

For starters, we don’t like going food shopping in the first place and, more importantly, it’s less crowded on weeknights than on the weekend.

On these nights it’s often difficult to cook dinner at home because time is of the essence. With that in mind, we started going out for dinner prior to our food shopping adventures.

Some nights we go out for Chinese food, other nights it’s Mediterranean, and sometimes we go to Chick-fil-A.

Last Monday night we happened to stop there and – to our surprise – we saw the Chick-fil-A cow. Even though I’m fortysomething, I still get excited when funny things like this happen.

We ordered our food and watched the cow go around the restaurant playing with children, greeting customers, and just generally being amicable.

And then something fascinating happened.

He never spoke. Not one moo. The cow LISTENED.

What we noticed is that the cow never said anything. The cow just listened. And people seemed to enjoy it. The cow helped when he could by getting someone napkins or by grabbing staff when the request was more involved, but all he did was listen.

How great would it be to help someone just by listening to them?

You don’t need to offer up potential solutions. There’s no need to judge or criticize anyone. You don’t need to figure out what you’re going to say. All you do is just listen.

When you stop talking and start listening to someone, you not only learn something, but you also help the other person. You may very well be the first person who really listens to them and allows them to get something off their chest. Who says only psychiatrists or psychologists can listen to someone? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

If we just take the time to really listen rather than talk, there’s no pressure and you’ll be there for a person who needs you. Even the most well-intentioned person who doesn’t mean to be toxic can inadvertently blurt out something the other person may take to heart.

Listen to listen. Don’t listen to respond.

Responding in haste could be toxic if you don’t know what you’re saying or haven’t given it much thought.

It doesn’t matter who it is. It could be your wife, your colleague, your kid, your friend, or your mom. Just listening to them conveys that you care about them. And keeping your mouth shut and your ears open prevents you from saying something that may make them feel worse than they already do.

As a result, these days we just need to practice listening instead of talking so much.

If you’re like me, you may talk too much and sometimes that hurts peoples’ feelings. The Chick-fil-A cow taught me a lot that night.

What do you think? Have you truly just listened to someone without talking? Have you met the Chick-fil-A cow? Tell me everything. I wanna know!

Want more? Check out my books about dealing with toxic people at home and at work.