You might be the type of person who is great at giving advice, or you might be the type of person who is usually the one asking or taking advice from others, whether they're your close friends, acquaintances, or family members.
This advice can be regarding serious topics, like friendships and relationships, or it might just be about something casual or trivial, like shopping or procrastinating getting work done.
However, no matter what, we as humans always seem to be better at giving advice than taking that advice.
Here are six pieces of advice we give, but never take ourselves.
1. "Don't worry about it, there's nothing you can do about it now."
Whether we're talking about a job interview that maybe didn't go as well as we would've hoped, an exam we didn't do very well on, or something else we wish could've gone a certain way and didn't, one piece of advice that always comes to mind is, "Don't worry about it, there's nothing you can do about it now."
This is what we tell our friends or family members who come to us because they wish they could control how something happened, even though it already happened. This is simply human nature. We tell them that since it is in the past, there's nothing more to do, so they may as well not worry.
However, this is easier said than done. We constantly want to worry, and nothing we tell ourselves will ever make that feeling go away.
2. "Just tell him/her how you feel."
This piece of advice is most often given regarding problems with a significant other, or friend/roommate. Someone close to us comes to us because they are having problems, and they don't know how to go about the situation.
We tell them to just let their boyfriend, girlfriend, friend or roommate know how they feel if they want anything to change. But again, this is a lot easier said than done. As humans, it's hard to tell people how we feel. We're afraid they'll take it the wrong way, be offended, have hurt feelings, or that we might just not be able to fully express what we're actually feeling.
However, if you don't tell someone what's bothering you or how you feel, they'll never know, and that's worse than all of the above.
3. "Don't take on more than you can handle."
This piece of advice is usually applicable with school/work related issues. Our friends are complaining to us about how they have so much to do, and how they are so stressed about everything and that they might not get it all done.
We like to tell them that they shouldn't take on more than they can handle, whether it be extracurricular activities at school, leadership positions, or work hours. It doesn't look good when you take on too much, and can't put in your best effort into everything you start.
You end up only putting 50 percent into everything, and that's not a good look. However, more often than not, we're taking on more than we can handle as well, and ignoring our own advice.
4. "Start your work early, then you won't have to worry about it later on."
This piece of advice we give, especially for college students, is all too accurate. Procrastinating is just a part of who we are, and it's hard to rid ourselves of the habit.
We tell our friends to not procrastinate so that they can go out with us, but we end up doing the same thing. It's just a part of college. It's so much easier telling someone else to not procrastinate than to actually not procrastinate ourselves.
5. "Confront them about it the next time it happens."
This piece of advice is probably one of the easiest to give to other people. When our friends come to us to vent about something that's been bothering them, our first response is most often, "Just confront them about it the next time it happens."
It's all too easy to tell people to confront others about what's bothering them, but when it comes to applying that advice to our own lives, it's so much more difficult.
Confrontation can be anxiety ridden and stressful, and actually following through with it is not easy at all.
6. "If you don't need it, don't buy it."
In terms of lighter topics, we always tell our friends when we're shopping that they shouldn't buy whatever they're trying on. They'll ask us if they should buy it, and we'll say, "If you don't need it, don't buy it."
But we're often tempted to buy new things, even if we don't need them. It's so easy to tell them to do what's right, but when it comes to following our own advice, again, it's a lot easier said than done.