﻿ Trustworthy Advice! - A Private Affair

Trustworthy Advice!

Trustworthy Advice

If you could somehow get the attention of someone very close to you… yourself! …then what sage advice might you have for this dear soul, as they live out their life amid the noise and chaos of day-to-day routine?

Consider how often you have “advice” (perhaps only sometimes shared) for those around you; your spouse, a colleague, a friend, a family member, etc. What they shouldn’t be doing, AND what they really should be doing instead! Truth be told, most of us have a background running commentary on what those around us could be doing to make their lives just a little smarter, lived more intelligently and successfully! (And drive better!) If only these dolts would listen to us!

But for a change, what would be the advice you would give to yourself, regardless of whether or not you might… listen?

Here’s a simple exercise.

Offer one good piece of very candid and direct advice to yourself in these five area.  Just a honest thought or two with some suggestions about…

  1. How you could better use your free time.
  2. A few basics on how you could easily improve your love life.
  3. A few thoughts about becoming a better money manager.
  4. Some recommendations about improving your work-life.
  5. And a few simple things you could do to improve your health.

I’m not suggesting that we do our best or most resourceful or creative problem-solving thinking on our own, but… when we’re stuck in some of our ways, it’s usually not ideas we’re lacking (we all dream!) but rather the resolve to break old habits and to reorganize our priorities to get things done. Nike!

In his brilliant little classic, “Tyranny of the Urgent,” Charles Hummel suggested that we are programmed  to respond to the urgent demands in life, at the expense of caring for the important.

Stephen Covey in his best seller “First Things First” also describes how easily we muck about with the less important things in life, at the expense of the things that really matter. His direct advice was to do the first things first! Not rocket science, but of course, we know how we fail in this.

If we think back over our day before we nod off to sleep tonight, we’re reminded about the good choices and the poor ones, and the results.

Some of the APA game cards ask for some full disclosure and for your thoughts about these (5) personal bits and pieces of your day-to-day living.

Try this for a moment.

  1. Quickly answer these five questions in your head. This should be fairly easy, with answers starting with “…well I suppose I really should, could be…” etc.
  2. Ask your spouse how they would answer the same questions, and then compare your answers.
  3. Pick just one of the five areas for the coming week, deciding (in the spirit of Covey and Hummel’s counsel) to take care of  (and enjoy!) the important things first.  To enjoy sweet if not blazing success in just one of the above areas.

In the spirit of this game, if you’re not sure where to begin, try #2, then #1, then #5.

Another week can now fly past, perhaps barely noticed or remembered, or… you can have some simple private fun with this.

Carpe diem!

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC)


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