My Momma Told Me…Pay Attention to Where You Get Your Advice
Facebook is full of information, opinions, advice, and pictures of cats. It can be a humungous time suck, giving you that yucky feeling of having spent hours looking at stuff which ultimately lowers your quality as a human being. But I digress.
Every now and again on social media, I come upon a gem of an idea, concept, thought or feeling that totally washes away the horrifying afterglow of seeing your 3rd grade English teacher in her bikini…50 years after she taught you.
I read one of these “keepers” just the other day, courtesy of my peer and friend Borzou who owns The Falcon Lab in the DC area. He shared an article from Inc Magazine called “7 Things I Wish I Had Known Sooner in Life.” Most of the items I found not pertinent or particularly meaningful to me. But one was a doozy! This was entitled “Ignore 99% of the Advice People Give You.”
The author goes on to explain the “Golden Rule of Mentorship: If the person (offering you advice) is someone you wouldn’t trade lives with, don’t take their advice. Period.”
Whoa! That’s the good stuff!
Although people mean well, one must always consider the source when receiving advice from others. (Warning: I’m about to give you advice, which appears to be a hypocritical thing for me to do in light of the topic. Bear with me, please, I’ll get to the point quickly and then you can decide if I’m full of it or not).
Are you getting financial advice from someone who struggles with money? (“Oh, just pay the minimum amount on your monthly credit card bill, that’s what I do,” as his car is being repossessed).
Are you getting romantic advice from someone who can’t seem to have a stable relationship? (“You know, I don’t have a problem with checking out my bf’s text messages, he has nothing to hide.”).
Are you getting career advice from someone who can’t hold a steady job? (“Let me take a look at your resume and give you some pointers!”).
You can see where I’m going with this. Make sure the type of advice you’re being given matches the strengths of the person giving it.
You may or may not know me, and if you do, you may or may not want to trade lives with me (sorry, I’m keeping this one, it’s too awesome to trade!). So feel free to not take this advice. But trust me, it’s solid.
Check out Smokey’s advice…
