WOW Word-Of-the-Week #513: Advice
June 4, 2014 by Susan Clarke
Advice – an opinion or recommendation on what could or should happen.
Is there someone in your life that has given you good advice? If you could go back 10 years, what advice would you give that you have learned? How receptive are you to taking someone’s advice?
I found another great follow up to for last week’s WOW on investment by Jonathan Clements in the Wall Street Journal Sunday titled, “Some Life Advice for the Class of 2014.” His son Henry graduated from Washington University and he had 7 good points of “parental wisdom” advice to give him. Today I will share the first two.
- If you aren’t careful, you will spend your life pursing goals that you think will make you endlessly happy, but in fact, will give the most fleeting of pleasures. You’ll hunger after the next promotion and pay raise. But a few months later, it’ll be just another paycheck. You’ll lust after the bigger house and new car. But after six months, the house will be just a place to live and the car will be just a way to get around town.
At issue here is a phenomenon known as the hedonic treadmill. We pursue these goals, sure that they’ll bring us great happiness. But instead, we quickly become dissatisfied and start hankering after something else.
- You could live an extraordinarily long time. In 2000, the median U.S. life expectancy at birth was 77 years, up from 47 for those born a century earlier. Moreover, as you age, your life expectancy rises, which means today’s 65-year-olds can expect to live to their mid-80’s. The upshot: You’re part of a vast experiment, where we have millions of people not only spending unprecedented lengths of time in the workforce, but also an unprecedented number of years in retirement.
I have heard that the only person who wants to hear advice is the one giving it. I tend to be more receptive when people ask if I want their advice. How about you?
This week focus is on giving and receiving advice. Do you think your parents gave you good advice? Do you often give your opinion about what could or should be done? How does it make you feel when someone makes a recommendation about what you could or should do? Would you like to share Clements advice with your own children or grand-children?
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