For some reason I often find myself in situations where I am asked for advice. This even happened when I was in college. If I was out with a group of friends and a stranger had a question, the stranger would always ask me regardless of how many other people were around. I guess I just have one of those faces; approachable, knowledgeable and trustworthy.
I’m sure you have been in similar situations. You ever notice how easy it is to give advice and solutions for other people’s issues. Yet your own issues seem so difficult. I guess it has something to do with the emotional investment. When you are not emotionally invested, like when it is someone else’s problem, the solution is always so clear. If it were not for those pesky emotions we could learn to take our own advice.
I admit it. I very rarely take my own advice. I’m sure I am not the only one. Have you told a girlfriend she could do better than her current beau, yet stayed with a guy who was not treating you right? Have you given you best health and fitness tips right before you spent the evening on the couch with way more than a single serving of cookies, chips, or ice cream? Have you explained budgeting techniques and the importance of having good personal financing and then went shopping on your credit card with money you don’t have because you were bored and the mall would be fun? This is just a small sampling of some of the times when I did not take my own advice.
While I love you Joy Chasers, and I hope you love my blog posts, other than the few where I am sharing information about an event or a product that I think you might like, the things that I write are for me. Meaning, I write to focus on my goals and to ask you guys for feedback on things that can help me get closer to capturing the Joy I have been Chasing. Through the blog I come up with solutions and advice on ways I can lose weight, make better use of my down time, and expand my comfort zone. But just like in the examples above, I often don’t take my own advice. SMH (That means Shake My Head for those not versed in text talk)
I think this is a behavior I am long overdue in correcting. It is time that I start listing to myself and taking my own advice. Maybe I need to spend some time reading Chasing Joy and not just writing about it.
Do you have a hard time taking your own advice? If you blog, how often do you re-read your old post, outside of editing purposes? Do you ever find yourself in situations where you the perfect example of do as I say not as I do.
Oh boy! This is a difficult one, I'll hold my hands up and admit that I'm not perfect and this is in all areas of my life. Age has helped me to sometimes take a needed step back and make informed choices, so I'm getting there 🙂