What is the biggest impediment to listening? Fear or lack of love (one and the same?). Too often, one is determined to protect their mental turf and so shut out the heart crying out to them, or the fresh thought knocking at their door.
The same applies to listening to God, our best and ever Friend. Perhaps this is why the Beatitude, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." It could very well read hear instead of see. A pure heart is free of fear and so is free to love, and therefore free to listen.
This is where the true sense of baptism comes in - not the once-in-a-lifetime religious ritual - but the ongoing process of relinquishing fear and limitation, as John the Baptist prophesied: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:"
"BAPTISM. Purification by Spirit; submergence in Spirit.
We are 'willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.' (II Corinthians v. 8.)" (S&H)
It goes without saying (what a silly expression!) that this baptismal process also makes us better listeners to our fellow-man!