Why do we seek advice?

 

Have you ever encountered this question? Why do we seek advice?

What is the answer that you think or get when you ask this question to yourself or others?

Advice is “guidance or recommendations offered with regard to prudent action“. Advice is nothing but learning from someone or something that has more knowledge or experience than you. Advice is very powerful and can be either useful or harmful depending on the person giving the advice and the person seeking the advice.

But let’s understand why do we seek advice at first?

We have one life with limited time span and limited resources to experience unlimited emotions and things existing in the world with all ourselves. In this limited available time span, we have much to do with very little to learn from our own experiences and actions.

Just imagine if we refuse to read books and learn from them and try to do all the science experiments and math all of our own. It will be a blunder. That’s why we try to learn from others who have already gone through the same situation that we are currently facing or have some knowledge about it. And this is nothing but seeking advice.

 

 

Seeking advice from someone helps us to enhance our knowledge horizons and take decisions based on more information than just impulsive thinking. Also, as mentioned above we have limited time span to experience all things in only one life that we get, learning from other person’s mistakes or seeking advice helps us to get knowledge that they have without actually experiencing the situation or doing the mistakes literally.

Thus, we have possibilities of achieving something faster than someone else who doesn’t have the knowledge that we gained through advice.

Now, most people think that all pieces of advice given are good and we should act upon them literally, but it’s not true at all. Understand that the person giving us advice had is different from us. The time when he or she must have been in the situation that we currently are must have been different and also he or she doesn’t have the same emotional and mental levels like you.

So, when you seek a advice you should spend some time thinking on the advice and see if it’s appropriate according to your current situation and if yes, then you have to define a process (set of actions) to act on the advice in your own way. When acted on an advice this way you get more beneficial results as compared to the actions taken on an advice literally.

Also, not all pieces of advice are good or appropriate. For example, let’s say someone has just left you and you are in the great feeling of unloved, depression and guilt because of that.

Now, you will get advice from many people that will say that it happens and just forget it and move on, get into a new relationship or do something nasty to that person and you will feel good. While some other people will advise you to take off from your current life, spend some time with friends and family, know your self-worth and see what that relationship has taught you and move on.

According to your own unique personality and situation that you are in, either one of two above advice is good and the second one is not appropriate and this is what you have to know for yourself by spending some time thinking over the pieces of advice you have received and then acting according to your will and actions.

Thus, seeking advice is very importance and, understanding and acting upon it is a more crucial part of it.