Giving and taking advice: How it can hurt. That’s the topic this week in the MFRA 52-Week Blog Challenge.
The biggest way advice can hurt, both the giver and the receiver, is if the advice isn’t asked for. Though your intentions might be good, offering advice that isn’t requested will usually lead to hard feelings.
Even if advice is requested, it’s a good idea to be tactful. It might take an extra second or two to think of a polite way to say something, but in my opinion it’s worth the effort, in particular if you’re actually trying to help someone. That brings me to another type of hurtful advice–the kind that’s deliberately nasty and designed to belittle someone rather than offer constructive criticism.
About taking advice and how it can hurt–not all advice is good, even if well intended. Also advice is often based on personal opinion and everyone’s opinions are different. What might be fantastic advice for one person will turn out to be terrible for another. When taking advice, you need to decide what will definitely help you, what might help you, and what will be no help at all. The same as when you give advice, when you take it from someone, especially if you’ve asked for it, be polite when interacting with them, even if you don’t agree with what they’ve told you.
Would you like to know how other authors in the MFRA 52-Week Blog Challenge feel about giving and taking advice? Please click here.
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Great post, Kate. If only everyone remembered to be tactful in receiving or giving advice.
good reminder about tact and courtesy. Sometimes there is too little of either in the world.