Curious

It popped up as I clicked on Spotify to listen to some music as I prepared to take a pre-dawn walk one morning a week ago:

Your 2025 Wrapped

Dive into Your Year in Listening

I’d seen a few comments about Spotify’s compilation of their listeners’ “music age”, favorite songs, and top, musical genres, a few days before then. So, when I was invited to check out my year-end profile, I was curious. 

I took a look at what they identified about my habits:

My “listening age” was 28.

My top musical genres were categorized as, “Taste like yours can’t be defined.” It appears that I have some very eclectic and diverse tastes in music - pop, musicals, neoclassical, new age, and oldies, for example. Apparently, I listened to 53 different musical genres throughout the year.

My most listened to song was “Perfect”, a huge hit for Ed Sheeran and another top song was Billie Eilish’s Oscar©-winner, “What Am I Here For?”

Okay. Since I am several decades older than 28, I was pretty happy to see my tastes classified as much younger. Yes, I love all sorts of musical genres and really like a large variety of musical categories. And, I really do like Ed Sheeran's and Billie Eilish’s music, because of the thoughtfulness, sensitivity and deeper emotion of so many of their lyrics. 

All in all, it actually seemed as if Spotify captured my preferences pretty well. I am glad that I checked out the analysis. I liked the confirmation of what I like to listen to.

While that was kind of fun to explore - reading that information was certainly more enjoyable and far less anxiety-producing than reading or listening to much of the constant stream of hourly breaking news - it also shines a light onto my professional listening profile, as well. It led me down a path to reflect on my own deeper and historical listening patterns. As a professional listener, that is vital to do from time-to-time.

To listen well, you’ve got to be curious. Curious about people’s stories - their experiences, their circumstances, their fears, their hopes, their feelings. We’ve got to be curious about not only the people whose opinions, experiences, and backgrounds are much like our own, but also just as curious about those whose lives are and have been very diverse and different.

The Spotify compilation led me to reflect on various other assessments I’ve taken over my educational and professional careers. The most significant profiles have been:

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, where I’m assessed as a healer - one who mends divisions in people’s lives and relationships and is conciliatory, deeply caring, outwardly tranquil, gentle, and diplomatic.

Strength Finders, which determined that my greatest strength above any other is empathy.

Working Genius, asserting that I most naturally and joyfully am a wonderer and a discerner who can envision the possibilities and see how things can be different and better, is steady and can give unconditional support to people in need, is able to generate a higher morale, and is a creative problem-solver.

Listener Preferences Profile, which shows that I am a people-oriented listener above everything else, as opposed to being a content-, time-, or action-oriented listener.

Knowing all this information confirms that I am in the right professional space - by having the skills, temperament, and natural inclination to listen compassionately and intuitively to everyone I encounter. That is reassuring and motivating for me in the face of a world in which good and effective listening is a greatly underdeveloped, under-practiced, and under estimated gift.

Being curious about who I inherently am and what brings me joy is immensely helpful in knowing where I am best in service to others. Curiosity also enables me to truly care about what others are experiencing and going through in their lives, what they are carrying inside them, and how their challenges affect how they see themselves, others, and the world around them. 

To listen well, we have to be curious about others’ lives and needs. And we have to be curious about our own gifts, our own internal make-up, and our own place in the world.

Being curious enables us to be our very best selves - to our own selves and to all the others whom we love, live with, work with, and meet all through our lives.

Photo by kian zhang on Unsplash