Unsolicited “Advice”

Unfortunately, there are too many people out there who follow the crowd mindlessly. They do not want to rock the boat. They do not want anyone to think less of them without taking a moment to ask themselves if this person who’s opinion they are listening to is worth actually listening to. Is this person someone they respect? Is this person an expert in the field they are giving your advice on? Most of the time they are not.

When someone starts to criticize you, take a minute and ask yourself if they have a life you want? If you are trying to get in shape you probably do not want to take health advice from a couch potato. If you are trying to build wealth, you probably should not take the advice of someone who is up to their eyeballs in debt. Those are pretty obvious. What about people who have never traveled or only been to one place and we want to travel widely, why would we listen to their advice? But when it comes to social issues why don’t we ask ourselves if this person has a life we want before listening to what they have to say?

It took me a LONG time to get to the point that I am comfortable telling the negative people, thanks, but no thanks. It isn’t for me. I am completely comfortable doing my own thing and ignoring the opinions of non-experts. I often chuckle at people who have never traveled giving me travel advice. I have been to more countries than I can count on 5 continents but people who have never had a passport or have only used it once often like to tell me what I must or must not do in regards to travel. In one case the person giving me advice has never traveled farther than a 3 hour drive away from the city they were born in. Yeah, thank you for your opinion, I’m all good here.

I honestly feel that most of the time the people giving you the “advice” are speaking as if they were speaking about or two themselves. For example; if you are planning a trip to Europe and you are all excited about it then speak to someone who has nothing but negative things to say, you may start to doubt yourself and it takes a bit of the sparkle away from your excitement.

It isn’t safe.

It’s too expensive.

You can’t go there alone.

Why would you ever want to do that when you can see anything you want on YouTube?

It goes on and on. It is the same for anything. You want to run a marathon…You can’t do that. It’s too far. What if you get hurt? How are you going to fit in the time to do that? You want to get in shape… Aren’t you tired from getting up early/staying up late to exercise? Don’t you miss food? There is no way you can keep that up through the holidays. You decide to go back to school… Don’t you think you are a little old for that? Why are you bothering to go back to school and waste all that time and money?

We all start our with a little doubt anything we try anything new and hearing all the negative questions/comments can make us doubt ourselves and put off our own goals and dreams. Bottom line, those who said the negative things are probably jealous of you and your courage to try something new. They don’t have it in them to do it so they don’t want you doing it either. After all, Who is going to watch the game with them and eat chicken wings, pizza and beer on the weekends if you are studying or getting in shape? What if you take that education and get new friends who are also well educated and leave your old friends behind? What if you make new, healthy friends and start hiking and kayaking on the weekends rather than sitting in front of the TV?

It is hard to be the one left behind as you watch others do amazing things. Seeing someone loose a bunch of weight and look amazing while you are straining to put on your shoes because your belly is in the way is hard. No one wants to be left behind so it is easier to sew the seeds of doubt in others.

Ignore the negativity and do AMAZING things anyway.