Advice Is By Choice!!!

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One of the things I’ve come to notice and accept is that sometimes, being the smarter and more experienced one doesn’t mean that people will listen to you or take your advice. You could know everything there is to know about a particular thing, still when you advise people on what to do, they end up making the wrong choices. Sometimes, choices that are totally different from the ones you told them.

Why do people do this? Especially when there is proof that you’ve gone through the exact same thing and you very much know what you’re talking about, it can be frustrating that people still refuse to follow your lead, despite how valuable it is. They’d rather do what’s on their mind, even if it doesn’t work out for them.

The truth is that, many times, experience really is the best teacher. And for the majority of people, if you’ve not gone through something, you will never learn the required lesson from that thing. While others are content with learning from the experiences of others, there are those who will always prefer to make decisions only based on their own experiences. And that is a very dangerous thing to adapt. Indeed.

It’s just like when you tell a child not to play with fire, but they refuse to listen. You tell them that fire is bad and can hurt them, but they don’t really believe you. All they see is how beautiful it is, they see you going close to it and handling it expertly without anything happening to you. Why then shouldn’t they be allowed near it? Even when you tell them that you’ve been burned multiple times, they still don’t believe you. You might even end up spanking them, just to reinforce the idea, but it still won’t work.

Eventually, it just might get to the point where you’d allow them to make their mistakes so that they can have the experience and learn the required lesson. Because without that, they’ll keep placing themselves in unnecessary danger. But then, you’ll be close by to ensure that it doesn’t go overboard, just enough to let them know that indeed such a choice didn’t pay.

But then, this can’t go for all behaviors. There are some mistakes that people can’t ever come back from. All it takes is one mistake, and their lives would be changed forever. But then, how do you handle that? The truth is, many times, unless people really want to listen to you, whatever you say to them will never really stick. Because in the end, no matter the kind of advice you give to someone, it’s only a suggestion. They’d always have a right to either follow your advice or not.

You can’t force people to make the right decisions. Even if it’s clear as day, and they want to make a foolish choice, they’re humans, and they have the right to make foolish choices. As long as it’s within the law. At a point, you might just have to accept that you’ve done what you could and simply hope for the best. Because people who want to do something will always find their way to do it, regardless of the restrictions placed on them.

From kids to adults, no one is exempt. They all have to choose to do the right thing, and no matter what you say or do, as long as they’ve made up their minds, it will have no impact.

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_{Thank you for this. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, I would love to know what you’re thinking. Till we meet in the next post.}

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_{N.B: All images used in this post are mine. The thumbnail was designed using Canva.}

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