Advising

Here's the funny thing about advice. You ask for it having previous conceptions about what you think you want to hear. Sometimes, you do hear what you want to hear and it confirms what you think you know about yourself. Sometimes, you get great advice! You get amazing tips and tricks and life is rainbows and unicorns. Sometimes, you don't.

This can be quite frustrating for many obvious reasons, not the least the fact that there's this nagging feeling that people are trying to make you do what you don't want to do, which is never fun. In this case, it seems rude to dismiss the advice because hey, you asked for it, and also because the people you asked to advise you are probably people who know something you don't, who can see something you don't. And then there's that little voice inside your head that says, "What if they're right? What if the best thing for me is to do what I don't want to do?"

It doesn't change the fact that every cell in your body rejects this idea. "They don't know me," you think. "I want to do what I want. Isn't it time that I get that courtesy?"

But then, maybe, just maybe, if you think about it, they do know you. Maybe, if you look closer, the advice isn't just something that you should throw by the side of the road. Pick it up, brush it off. It might truly be not only the best thing for you, but something that, upon closer inspection, you do want to do yourself. I mean, your advisers aren't the enemy. They're on your side. They see what you don't see.

So don't reject all advice that seems at first rejectable. Consider why they gave that advice in the first place. Then, do what you want.