While I go about my daily schedule, I get interrupted with questions from different people about different scenarios. I listen to what they have to say, then I dish out my best advice, hoping that it is enough to get them through their situation. However, at the end of the day I look back to what I said and think, “Hmm, was that really the right thing to say?”
I brush off those small doubts, only to have them linger in the back of my head, taunting me and saying, “You just changed the entire course of their life in the worst way.”
Great, now I can’t help but wonder if they actually acted on my advice and regret listening to me.
Here comes the next day. I see the people I gave advice to and ask them how they are doing and whether it worked out for them. They tell me to my face that everything is great and that I helped them out, but as I walk away, I know that they are never going to take my advice again. That’s not going to stop me from giving out advice, though. It’s like an addiction.
Another situation arises and I know I have the best solution to their problems. I get excited and let the words leave my mouth. I explain to them everything they need to do and why it’s the best route they can take. Once they leave the room, my brain begins to run and I want to take back everything I said. I want to pull them back in time and tell them I was wrong and to listen to anyone but me.
They walk back in and tell me that everything I said is exactly what happened and that my advice worked. Yay! It worked out! Right? No. I didn’t actually help them out. I just got lucky enough that the right words formed in my brain and somehow managed to apply to what they were going through.
Now I’m in class. Someone leans over and asks me if I did the homework. Yes, I did. They have questions over the homework and I look at them feeling clueless as ever, but I guess my brain doesn’t feel the same way because it is spewing exactly how I did the homework and how I answered the questions. Interesting. I don’t remember feeling that confident when I was originally doing the assignments. Wait, now I am also telling them how I’m planning on doing the next assignment. Have I even looked at the next assignment? No, I have not. Great.
I am at work now and someone is telling me that they are interested in someone else and I start to tell them, “Shoot your shot!” Then I realize that may not be the best choice considering I know nothing about what’s going on at all.
They continue to update me on their love life and oh, look here, the person they were interested in is taken. So much for me telling them to go all in with someone who is already in a relationship.
At the end of the day, I don’t think any of us are qualified to give advice, per se. In reality, we all just want to hear what’s happening in other’s lives and we like to interject ourselves in the hope that something interesting will come our way.
