‘What’s your last piece of advice for our readers?’ A reporter asked me recently as we concluded the interview. ‘Don’t listen to all advice’, I said.
She thought it was pretty funny, as I’d just shared advice for the last thirty minutes or so.
We are bombarded with advice and not all of it is fabulous. What works for someone might not work for you, but how do you know?
In today’s world where everyone claims to be an expert of some sort, people are very quick to give (sometimes unwanted) advice and some of it can have a huge impact both positively or negatively and even determine the course of your career, health, life, relationship.
My very first business mentor told me not to call a business Basic Bananas. I sure am glad I didn’t listen.
She had some brilliant insights, however in my gut I knew that Basic Bananas could work for us. It might not have worked for everyone, but I just knew (I had also been working in branding for long enough to trust my intuition coupled with experience).
It can be challenging to know what advice to take on and what to ignore. I find that the best thing is to take all advice with a grain of salt and trust yourself first and foremost.
The issue is that a lot of people have come to rely on outside advice and forgotten how to even trust their own intuition, so I thought I’d break it down into three factors that will help you determine which advice to follow and which to acknowledge, but recognize it isn’t suitable for you.
1. The advisor
Who is the person giving you advice? Do they have experience in the field they are giving you advice in? For example if you are looking for property investment advice, would you take advice from someone who owns no property or someone who has a successful property portfolio.
Would you take flying lessons from someone who has never flown a plane before? Nope! Yet, we got so much advice from people who are well-meaning but might not be walking the talk.
So when getting advice, check if the person has a track record and knows what he or she is talking about.
Sometimes you might even want to consult a few people and if you are getting conflicting advice, which is highly likely, look at the advice itself, which is the next factor.
2. The advice
Evaluate the advice you are given, especially if it is detrimental to your future, your health, your life, your business, your relationship or any other aspect of your world.
Rather than blindly following someone’s directions, use your own judgment. Remember, not all advice is equally as good or bad for everyone.
I learned something from my dear brother a long time ago when I caught him making a list with pro and cons for travelling to certain countries. At the time I thought it was silly, why not just go and explore whichever country is calling you the most? But now I can see how list making can be useful especially if your intuition is not talking to you loud and clear.
If someone tells you to change your career, make a list with all the reasons why this is a good idea and another one why it absolutely isn’t. One of the sides will most likely outweigh the other. You could also make a list with all the ideas on how to make your current career more exciting!
Take all advice with a grain of salt, even the one you are reading right now.
Don’t just blindly follow a guru, instead learn to be your own guru.
3. You
You already are your own guru and you already have most answers within you, but sometimes your ‘guruness’ is shadowed by outside conditioning. Learn how to trust yourself more by listening to your own gut instinct. Intuition can be practiced!
About a decade or so ago I decided to learn how to listen to my own intuition more which didn’t come easy at first for a Swiss born Australian who was used to make most decisions based on logic. Slowly I learnt how to fully trust myself and now most of my big decisions are based on intuition (and then rationalized by logic!). Some of them might even seem a little irrational from the outside, but those are often the best decisions I make!
You don’t need another guru, you already have one, you have you!
Franziska Iseli
PS: Don’t take my advice!