Barrybran III - New job, new life?

[Barrybran]

That was a vent earlier. Completely anti-DB, I know. My wife went to bed and was good enough to let me know how she was feeling. Long story short, it turns out I hadn't been listening as well as I thought I had been and that I had been bringing her down. Admittedly, I'm not sure if this really is a recent thing or a totality-of-our-relationship thing so I've got some serious inward looking to do. She brought up how I make her feel, the reason why she thinks I do this, what she hopes to achieve for herself and what she has done already regarding our situation to achieve her goals. Basically she's thrown me a massive bone whether she knows it or not, whether she intended to or not. It was a 2x4 and some.

As for the why, it was very insightful. I have above average intelligence and those closest to me know it. My parents, my brother, my wife and my friends. I've always felt smarter than nearly everyone I meet. As a kid, I was quite arrogant because I knew it. I used to put my brother down quite badly and even now, I'll take a friendly dig at him that upon reflection, could be taken quite poorly. Apparently, I've also brought my wife down by treating her as being inferior to me. She called me on it a couple of months back but apparently it's still an issue. I made a reference earlier in this thread about my Dad jokingly calling me Sheldon from Big Bang Theory and that's more accurate than I like to admit, especially in the sense that I may treat people condescendingly without actually realising it. My wife has been kind enough to put it in big neon lights for me.

My wife is adamant she's on her own journey but her words feel like a great, big "lift your game." Does anyone know of any decent books on communication and listening?