We experience those moments in life when someone tells us exactly the right thing at the right time. It could’ve been a relative, a friend, a teacher, or a random passerby we’ll never see again. These special words they bestow upon us impact our journey. We can look back on that moment in time and acknowledge we took a step in a certain direction because of what they said. That one step led to more and more goodness in our lives that we couldn’t possibly imagine living without today.
But what was it about those words at that specific time? Why did we accept them so easily, and allow them to influence the trajectory of our lives?
Was it simply “good advice”?
Well, what constitutes “good” advice? Advice must be context-dependent. “Shoot your shot” is excellent advice for someone nervous to send a well-constructed cold email to grow their business. The same advice would be horrifically inappropriate for an emotionally distressed person with a gun to their head.
Further, we must be ready to accept advice for it to be “good” for us in that context. No matter how sound advice may seem for a particular scenario, if it simply bounces off the recipient, it’s worthless.
Galileo purportedly said, “You can’t teach a man anything new; you can only remind him of what he already knows.” Then wouldn’t it be so that we only accept what another person tells us when it already seems true within ourselves?
Ben Franklin is credited with saying, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” Then doesn’t this mean we had to be already convinced of the idea someone wishes to transfer to us, in order to have accepted it?
Is it possible that when someone says those magical words to us, giving us permission to take that leap, they are validating what we intuitively already knew? In that case, maybe we hope to attract someone — anyone — into our lives to tell us the thing we already know deep within. Summoning mere external validation for our rich internal wisdom.
What are you waiting for someone to tell you? Say it out loud to yourself, and watch the magic unfold.
Thanks to Rodion Kutsaev for the photo
