Don’t be that family at the restaurant glued to your phones or the parent checking your text messages while your child begs for your attention. Instead, give your undivided love and active attention to your family and friends. Want to sell your Hawaii Area Home? Get a home value reportWant to buy a Hawaii area home? Search all homes for sale Today, we want to talk about cryptocurrency. Wait, it’s the holiday season! Sorry, wrong topic. Stay tuned for our next video about BitCoin. What we really want to do today is wish you and your family a merry Christmas! In Hawaiian, that’s “Mele Kalikimaka!” We also want to wish you a happy New Year, or Hau’oli Makahiki Hou! We only have one thing to add to your holiday to-do list. Instead of giving presents, give your presence. In this day and age of technology, we see it and are guilty of it; technology distracts us from being fully present with our loved ones. Don’t be that family at the restaurant glued to your phones or the parent checking your text messages while your child begs for your attention. Instead, give your undivided love and active attention to your family and friends. See below for five more ways to be attentive during the holidays. As always, reach out to us with any questions. Thanks and aloha! Here are five more ways to be attentive during the holidays: 1. Smile: A smile is a ticket for people’s heart. Smile – it is a simple attention-giving tool to others. It is a simple, basic behavior, yet people just don’t think about it. People are more likely to warm up to someone with a broad smile on his face than they are to someone with an unhappy face or dour countenance. Smiles can go a long way. Ron Gutman reviewed studies about smiling and found that a smile can predict how long you will live. British researchers have found that one smile can provide the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 chocolate bars. Smiling is also contagious, especially when you combine it with sincere attention. In Stanley Gordon West’s Growing an Inch, he famously wrote, “Smile and the world smiles with you, cry and you cry alone.” Did you ever see these people at a conference or networking event walking around with an expression of anger/ scowl on their face? They are so busy with trying to network the room that they actually forget the basic rule of attentional networking – Smile. 2. Listen: One of the most unappreciated Attentional networking skills that you can easily master is the ability to listen. To get people excited about you and your business, you need to do more listening and less talking. Good listening is active not passive. How many times have you walked away from a conversation with someone and can’t remember a word they’ve said? You were there in body but little more. It is easy to ‘zone out’ and drift into our own thoughts, particularly if you are busy, bored, can’t see the relevance or have made an assumption that there is nothing to gain from the discussion. In an interesting blog titled: “Key Networking Skills – Listening Skills” written by Opendoorz Professional Business Network, the concept of “Engaged Attentional Listening” is discussed. Engaged Attentional Listening is when you understand a conversation and could answer someone else’s questions about what they said, whether the person was there or not. Fully engaged listening takes this to the highest level. You not only hear and understand what has been said, but you have a sense of who the person is, of their passions and experiences and what really makes them tick. One of the most profound points Carnegie made in How to Win Friends was that people love to talk about themselves. If you can get people to discuss their experiences and opinions—and listen with sincere interest and give real attention—you can have a great conversation with someone without having to say much at all. Attentional Networking Listening Skills Tips: A good listener actively pays attention to the conversation and responds