Stop Soliciting Advice.

We are all guilty of it. You see something that doesn't align with what you believe, or what you want to believe, and you just can't help yourself. You don't even think about it, it is just so natural that it slips out like you just had a double dose of verbal Ex-lax. Stop. Soliciting. Advice.

You may be thinking, “Who da ef this guy think he is?” I am your Jiminy Cricket. You may not have read the post about why I make these posts. Here it is if you are interested. I am my Jiminy Cricket. The short story is that I caught myself doing this not too long after a mild rant about other people giving me un-asked-for advice. Want to know a dirty little secret that we all have, we all talk about, but very few people actually seem to listen to or follow? Here it is; Nobody wants your advice unless they ask for it. At least that is the case in America.

I think it is beautiful that we live in a world where we can each have our own private little space called our mind. We can do anything there, and we can believe anything we want. Each one of our minds is beautifully unique, and that is a fact that I think has immense value. I think these differences are what put us at the top of the food chain. We each see this world differently and we have the ability to discuss, debate, pass on, and just straight up talk about these different views. I will elaborate on this in another post, but the point is, we all believe different stuff. Here is the key; advice is completely different from discussions, debates, passing on of information, and conversations. Advice is a recommendation offered with regard to prudent future action, according to the Google. Unsolicited advice is about as welcome and useful as an unsolicited enema. Your advice, just like this enema, has value. It also has a time and place, and you have to be in the right setting and mindset for it to be welcome and effective.

I could continue to make similes, analogies, and metaphors for another few hundred words, but I think I got my point across. You and the people around you will be much happier if you only offer advice when it is asked for. Please. What you believe is very valuable. What you believe is however, the culmination of your life experience and therefore is not transferable through one or two passing sentences. If you just can't help it, go start a blog. Not like this one though, nobody reads this one. You will want at least one person other than yourself to read it if you want to be taken seriously.