I can solve her problem. I know I can. I know I can. I just know I can!
But she won’t listen.
I can solve his problem. I know I can. I know I can. I just know I can!
But he won’t listen.
I can solve everybody’s problems. I know I can. I know I can. I just know I can!
But they won’t listen.
And oh no! I bet they sometimes feel the same frustration with me.
So what’s the answer to this quandary? Can you solve it?
Why won’t others take our advice, and why won’t we take theirs (most of the time)?
Is it because they/we are stubborn? And the solutions will force us to go in directions we don’t want to go?
Or are we just not insightful enough to get deep inside one another’s problems to really understand them?
Don’t know.
Friends and family (well mostly family, who tend to be so ouch brutally honest), say I give way too much advice. And so with The Great Pause and midlife, I am learning to just keep my mouth closed, at least some. (Blog excepted.)
But if someone says, “I need your advice,” this old brain goes to town. Yippee!
What about you? Are you a giver of advice? Or has age taught you to hold your wise tongue?
Photo: I took this picture from a fourth grade arithmetic test my mom saved. I got a 98%. Funny, no math tests exist for Barbara Kiehne [Younger] once she got into Algebra Two. Maybe a tutor or a wise math friend could have helped her, but she was too stubborn to ask for advice.
Note that the test was mimeographed. Remember the fumes! Those were the days.
Your post gives me shivers! I used to detest Maths at school!
on March 13, 2012 at 4:09 pm Deborah MasonAnd this was the easy stuff! I wasn’t so bad back then, but by the time I got to Junior High, I was a mess!
on March 13, 2012 at 4:28 pm BarbaraI used to try to give advice just out of empathy and wanting to help. But in recent years I’ve found the best way to help is to just listen. When people tell you their problems they don’t want you to find the solutions, they want someone to listen.
on March 16, 2012 at 11:33 am Mary🙂
It took me years to figure that out, but I wonder why they don’t want advice? I do, some. And sometimes I even take advice. I have one friend who asks for it, so then of course I got to town!!
on March 16, 2012 at 12:47 pm Barbara