Can I give you some advice?

I’m not really going to give you advice well just this one thing someone told me today, “all men are dogs.”  I can neither confirm nor deny that statement and I don’t know a lot about dogs so all I have to say is “no comment.”

What I do know a lot about is advice.  I know how to give it and I’m really good at it if I don’t say so myself.  I know how to listen to people giving it to me and I know how to pretend I’m actually ‘taking’ their advice.  What I did have a hard time with was taking my own advice.  And I’m not talking about that advice like ‘ you should eat 7 servings of vegetables a day.’  I’m talking about that internal voice that tells you something is not right.

I had the eternal problem of not trusting my internal advice voice.  I could listen to others talk about what they felt was right for me and I always thought “wow yeah that makes sense.”  To only find out that these people didn’t know what the heck they were talking about!  Ha I mean since I tell people what to do all the time and I barely know what I’m talking about, what was I thinking?  Of course if  we are talking about Beastie Boys or Zelda then I’m your expert!

A few years back I went though a tumultuous time  trying to figure out an issue one of my little guys was going through.  I would tell everybody my story and boy did everybody have an opinion and offer their advice to me.  I was so lost and hungry for someone to give me the answer that I bought anything they were selling.  Only to find out that those I choose to lisen to were all wrong and all that ‘advice’ I decided to follow had only prolonged finding the solution.  Talk about feeling horrible and disappointed with myself which in turn I had to forgive myself for (see the ‘Please forgive me’ post).  If I had trusted me we would have all been in a different place.  Well live and learn and learn I did.  More and more instances arose in my life where I would look to others for their input.  Which honestly I do  love to hear other people’s perspective I just needed to learn that I know what is best for me.  I know all my surrounding circumstances.  I know what feels right.  I am the one who has to live with the outcome.  So I should really be listening to me!

So if I could give you one piece of advice it would be trust yourself, you know best.  I took this advice and I’m getting better and listening to me.