Why Are LISTEN & SILENT Spelled With Identical Letters?

Why Are LISTEN & SILENT Spelled With Identical Letters?  Indeed, this is one of the most trivial questions we can ever pop-up.  BUT let's dice and drill here.  LISTENING is NOT that always easy.  I bear witness to multiple times wherein we had an eloquent speaker in front BUT at the end of his piece, those messages hardly resonated to some amongst the target audience.  BUT a person is NOT always to be faulted!!!

These days, WHO are we to complain if we are surrounded by that constant cacophony of noise, controversy and worse, chaos.  YET, the most successful people on our global village are really NOT just skilled BUT have become experts in LISTENING.  NOW, back to the basic question as to WHY LISTEN and SILENT are both spelled with the identical set of letters?  Oh yes, this is NOT my own answer BUT I stumbled across this one in ChatGPT who says that TO BE A GOOD LISTENER, WE NEED TO FIRST LEARN HOW TO BE SILENT.  In the shortest words possible, LISTEN and SILENT are closely intertwined, inside-out💜💛💚

SO HOW?  I heard this sage advice.  A good LISTENER turns down the 'volume' of the environment.  WHICH means, without interrupting the speaker, let us remove WHATEVER distractions there may be.  And it's as basic as those most common no-brainers LIKE if you're in a meeting [regardless if it's virtual or F2F], mute and keep your smartphone NOT visible to your line of sight.  Of course there will be outliers, i.e. if you are then anticipating an expected urgent and/or critical call from either your client [which might end up as a deal breaker if you miss the call] OR a call from your stakeholder[s] WHICH would pertain to a key decision.  Problem is, many of us are guilty of keeping their smartphone visibly in his line of sight [even during ongoing calls].  Ouch, many times I was guilty of this in the past😡😡😡

NOT done with the no-brainers.  WHEN we're in a discussion, DON'T [as in DON'T] look at the time [again, UNLESS/EXCEPT there is/are outliers] BUT if time is an issue, be transparent to let the parties know HOW much more time you can spare.  And if you're in a public place, position yourself so you're NOT tempted to look at the passersby.  YES, to state the obvious, in SILENCE, it is much easier in WHAT IS and ISN'T being communicated.  And moreover, we need to recognize that there will always be issues below the surface, way below WHAT is obvious that we CAN'T either see OR hear.  Being aware of our own preconceptions and biases will also widen the net enough to help things to become crystal clearer than clear.  And if there is a brewing OR running conflict, let us keep an open mind that maybe the conflict is NOT about us❌❌❌

Our takeaway:  One basic rule many of us tend to be somehow guilty is the level of attention we pay to the person speaking OR communicating.  YES, it is easier to discern emotions conveyed by someone WHEN tuning into their voice, so it may even help if we either divert OR close our eyes WHEN listening [IF that is appropriate in the setting]. Little-little tips include making a mental note of the speaker's body language and observe if the speaker him/herself seems preoccupied, rushed OR seemingly distracted.  Oh yes, one last sage advice.  We DON'T always NEED TO TALK because WHILE we may be smart WHO feels saying something, withholding thar urge to talk may even help more.  YES, that explains WHY ARE LISTEN & SILENT spelled with identical letters dude😌😌😌