1.31.07

Sorry that I fell asleep today in class. It is my last class of the day and I was beat. Thanks Liz for waking me up.

Today was pretty cool. I like how Bradams is teaching us how to peel them onions. We just don't whack at it and 'probe'. The iceberg analogy is actually in Preach My Gospel (Missionary Manual of the Church). I got to be real familiarized with it real well during the mission and it really works. We do not know the people we talk to. It is hard to trust people because we do not know them. Even in this LDS town, people are people. But we can never assume their feelings and circumstances. Truly the key part of empathic listening is to care about the person and lose our selfishness.

I read a book by Larry King last semester on becoming a great conversationalist. The main key point he focused is to be an empathic listener.

1.29.07

Today's class was pretty chill. Again, learned some things that can make me a better communicator.
One of the points Bro. Adams mentioned was how people trusts us when there is a high EBA. The more we deposit, the higher the trust fund is. One of the ways we can do this is through rephrasing the content ACCURATELY. This has worked really well for me (but I do not want to use this with kids from our class since they'll know what I am up to--being empathetic).

Parroting in the other hand will annoy people and give you withdrawals from the EBA. I have done this too especially with girls I don't care and they ended up not caring eventually at the conversation.

Then Bradams summed up the class with this statement (concerning empathetic listening):
"We get caught up with our "what is" than other people's "what is".

True dat.

1.26.07

Today was chill. Hockey game right after class.

It was cool to learn about how that we sometimes encode our communication to be received to intended receivers. In daily communication, we talk differently to different people. We talk differently to President Clark in contrast with our buddies. I see myself doing this a lot.

Also Bro. Adams shared with us 4 different things:

Uncounscious Competence
Conscious Competence
Conscious Incompetence
Unconscious Incompetence

Tight stuff.

In the mission I have used empathetic listening a lot so I attempt to hear their worries and doubts so I can send them in the water. But since I have been home I just lost that art. Last night I had 2 dates (one in the afternoon, one in the evening). The joy of empathetic listening. I pretty much did that and the girls were talking my ears off! It's a good sign because I don't like to talk a lot and they trusted me with their personal stories.

1.24.07

We finally went over the class syllabus. It has been a great time so far in class. I am learning a lot especially with dealing with people. First activity we did was we divided ourselves into groups so we can discuss the article we were supposed to read for homework. Wow that was really interesting!

"When things get inour way (not planned), it is an inconvenience and makes us grow (dealing with it)". It's true.

Another thing that I learned from Bro Adams is to not probe when trust is low, and emotions are high.

Hockey game tomorrow at 4:30PM. The team (Spartans) are looking sharp.

1.22.07

Today's class was really interesting.
-Discussed the different reasons why men and women communicate:
Men: for status determination
Women: for connection/relationship

There needs to be a balance point between the two genders.

Bro Adams also discussed the "I" Statement. This made me think of when I communicate with people. I observe, interpret, feel, and say the outcome.

The class was just interesting. I learned a lot that I can apply to my dealings with people. It's great.

1.19.07

Class was short for me but nonetheless amazing. I was only able to attend the first 30 minutes of the class since I had to leave early for a hockey game.

I really enjoyed it because we talked about motivation. Bro Adams pointed out 3 different causes for our personal motivatio--money, a just cause, or recognition.

That made me think of my motivation in everything I did. I wanted to stay in the class but I had to go. Good thing he was able to discuss conerning the EBA (Emotional Bank Account).
We make certain deposits, withdrawals, and balance whenever we meet with people. I have read this before in Mr. Covey's book before and truly enhances the way I interact with people. It is great!

A very interesting class

Discussions today were great. Almost the whole class were partcipating and giving their 2 cents in the discussions. The topics varied but it revolved around the two important emotions of humans-- Love and Fear. Bro Adams pointed out many different aspects between these two emotions and their bi-products. The diagram was really cool showing the relationships between the emotions.

Then we got into some good discussions. I took some notes and here they are.

-Negative Faith --> Fear
-That which we resists, persists (Bro Covey taught this to us when he visited my mission in UT SLC).

There are more cool notes I got. Then we got into the Love Language and perfection.

It was cool. I can use this in my life.

Friday

It was a usual class. We got to hear more presentations. I am learning a lot about them. We continued with the role play by Evan and Brother Adams. Evan would not let go of Bro. Adams' hands. Good actor. I had hockey tryouts right after that.

Testing

The concepts that I learned during last class was how different we are. I started looking at my other classmates as people, not robots. Although I noticed that once class was over, we were back to our old selves again. Communication is definitely key towards understanding. If we can communicate better, we can learn a lot from people.

Life is great. Go Baltimore Ravens!