Listen With Your Ears.

Today's Marketing Cookie is about listening with your ears.

I've always believed that actions speak louder than words and a person's behavior is a window into their true intentions. However, when listening to someone, you shouldn't make judgments based solely on how they look because your eyes may deceive you. The person speaking to you could be a wolf in sheep's clothing, or worse, could be a saint you've mistaken for a thief.

We've all been burned, cheated, and hurt before. As a result, our defenses and prejudices stay on high alert, giving little chance for intruders to find an opening into our hearts. Our past experiences have taught us what the untrustworthy and unreliable look like, and we pass judgment on them without a fair trial. We know what clothes they wear, what music they like, what words they prefer to use, and definitely know what it means should they have any tattoos.

We are already listening to everyone around us with our eyes before they ever have a chance to utter a single word. And therefore, when they do finally speak to us, we can't hear them. Think about it. You and I are constantly sorting everyone into categories before we truly know who they are. We run a closed, heavily defended castle, surrounded by a murky moat, and only let the few people approach our gate who look a certain way—most of whom then turn out not to be who we expected.

The next time you're at an event with people whom you've never met, I encourage you to turn off your unfair filter system. For one day, don't judge every book by its cover or automatically put people into categories. Treat them all equally according to the golden rule, and you may be surprised by what you discover. For one day, follow what today's fortune says: "To hear, you must listen with your ears, and not your eyes."