Stop, look, and listen has been the title of several songs throughout the years, and serves as one of the most powerful phases that has ever been penned. Songs don’t only have beautiful melodies, but they are often packed with timeless inspiration and encouragement. For example, the 1970s American, Philadelphia soul group, The Stylistics once penned these words:

“It’s Never Too Late Too Late To

Stop Look Listen To Your Heart

Hear What It’s Saying.”

These lyrics are powerful and if applied could drastically change our world. How, you may ask? 

Well, recent history has unfortunately displayed what can happen if we don’t listen to our hearts and instead make decisions with our ears, our heads, and our eyes. Unfortunately, things go bad quickly. When we make decisions with our ears we often hear so many things that often are contrary to one another, which leaves individuals confused on the right thing to do. If we listen to our heads, even with the best of intentions, we sometimes still make the wrong decision. Our intellect is very important but sometimes our intellect pushes us to look at life and other people through a window and not a mirror. Meaning, our “head” decisions often handicaps us from seeing ourselves in others (a mirror perspective) and instead see other people as just people (a window perspective) with no connection to us at all. Finally, when we make decisions with our eyes only, we potentially become casualties to the negative effects of our own biases. But the good news is, it’s never too late to stop, look, and listen to your heart.

There is a leadership concept called “heart-centered leadership,” which focuses on leading in such a way that a leader attentively listens, and emphasis on emotional intelligence. Skip Prichard once said, “heart-centered leadership means having the wisdom, courage and compassion to lead others with authenticity, transparency, humility and service. Anyone can be a heart-centered leader if he or she has the determination and daily commitment ….” Heart-center leadership allows you to “never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up,” as Jesse Jackson once said. Heart centered leadership is what our world needs, and guess what? It’s not too late to stop, look, and listen to our heart.

Editorial Disclaimer: All blog posts are contributed by a member of the MovementForward, Inc. team in their personal capacity. The opinions expressed in the posts are the author’s own and do not reflect the views of MovementForward, Inc. or any other partnership associated with the organization.