Word-Of-the-Week #749: Advice

December 13, 2018 by  

Advice an opinion that someone gives you about what you should do.

How receptive are you to getting advice? Do you trust your own gut instincts?

This is a follow up to last week’s Opinion. I think there are people who mistake an opinion for advice. When someone offers their opinion that’s all it is. If they’re telling you that you should do something or act differently that becomes advice.

“The trouble with advice is that it’s usually something you don’t want to hear.”

– CHARLES DE LINT, The Onion Girl

In pondering this I realized I prefer advice when I have asked for it. How many times have you gotten unsolicited advice? How did it make you feel? Basically for me it brings up feelings of “I know better than you do” and superiority. Does it seem like the one’s giving unsolicited advice a lot of the time are those people closest to you?

I like to share and receive information, reviews, etc. Sharing information is not giving advice but actually a way to receive advice or validation. It really comes down to how that information is presented and perceived.

“Before you give advice, that is to say advice which you have not been asked to give, it is well to put to yourself two questions–namely, what is your motive for giving it, and what is it likely to be worth? If these questions were always asked, and honestly answered, there would be less advice given.”

– JOHN WILLIAM MACKAIL, “On Giving Advice”

When I travel I have always asked people their advice on places I haven’t been to and it has served me well! That being said, it is my gut feeling that ultimately decides whether to use the advice or not. I can’t explain why I believe some people and not others.

“I only do what my gut tells me to. I think it’s smart to listen to other people’s advice, but at the end of the day, you’re the only one who can tell you what’s right for you”

– JENNIFER LOPEZ, Woman’s Day Magazine, Nov. 13, 2007

This week is all about advice. Do you have a tendency to give it more than you take it? How about your family members? This is the time of year when you see more of them and a reminder that they may be just giving their opinion and not advice!

PS – I write about that which I need to be reminded of or that resonates with me. And things that I would like to or will say to someone I love and care deeply about. I try to keep my emotions out of my WOW’s but they have a way of creeping in! Pretty much like my life 😊

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