I was having a conversation with someone yesterday, and every time we started talking about a certain subject, I noticed we both couldn’t get through to the other.

She wasn’t understanding what I was saying, and I wasn’t understanding what she was saying. It was strange because neither of us was saying anything very complicated.

At a certain point it occurred to me that maybe the problem was we had different definitions of certain words.

For example She kept telling me “Your not listening to me” And I kept saying I was listening. At a certain point I asked her to define listening.

She said listening means “you hear  what I am telling you to do and you do it, or if you where listening to me you would understand what I was saying and agree with me”.

I then said to her that is not my definition of listening, my definition is, “Hearing what you have to say and then making my own decision if that is right for me.

I realized she was right according to her definition of listening, I was not listening, but according to my definition I was.

I can’t tell you how many arguments I have avoided just because I realized if everything is subject to thought,  that would mean even words are subject to thought.

Which means 2 people can be talking English, but based on their individual definition of words, can really be talking 2 different languages.

If you are ever in conversation with someone and notice you can’t seem to get your point across to the other, start asking the person his definition of certain words, you may find progress being made.