I’ve been racking my brain for the last couple of days wondering what my topic would be this week and, like always, I fell into a stump. Then I woke up to a situation, and just like that it came to me.

Advice.

I’m pretty confident that my faithful and few readers know what advice is, what constitutes good advice, what is considered bad advice, and so on and so forth.

I feel that I am personally receptive to good warranted advice. Warranted meaning that I asked for it and/or sought it out. I feel my friends are too.

But I recently had an epiphany, and that was that sometimes I really need to keep my advice to myself.

I say this having realized that some of my friends are snappy, not because I am trying to steer them in the right direction, but because I’m offering advice on situations that have nothing to do with me and that they didn’t ask for.

I write this less to educate, but more to share a personal discovery about myself.

I am the type of friend that wants nothing but the best for the ones I love. So, if I think a decision that they are making is a mistake, I will let them know and maybe offer an alternative. I do this a lot, but at times I’m not receptive to the same thing.

I realize I can be very stubborn at times, and if I’ve come to a decision, I thought it through for a while and second and third guessed myself multiple times (is there a such thing as third guessing yourself?).

So, when I get a friend who questions my decision, I immediately shut it out, unless it’s damn good advice. And with this knowledge of self, I’ve come to realize that I need to consider that when dealing with my friends.

I will say this though: Nothing aggravates me more than when I give warranted advice and people go and do the opposite. I do not speak just to hear myself. If I wanted to do that, I would honestly offer life changing advice to my two-year-old daughter. I’ve had people ask for advice, do the opposite, then come back and confess they should have listened to me. What sense does that make?

I leave you all with my parting questions. How receptive are you to good, warranted advice? Do you follow the advice or do you still do your own thing? How often do you offer advice to your friends, and do they welcome it?