I tried to make a cake to but the crust kept breaking, so I asked for advice from a sister who loves to bake. She said, “I don't know because my crust never breaks.” She doesn’t know, so she doesn’t give any advice.
When we are confused, we often seek advice from others instead of solving it ourselves. People are also enthusiastic to give advice according to their own perspectives, understandings, strengths, and weaknesses. However, it is often difficult to apply their advice, or make the situation worse by applying it, or it can only solve the problem temporarily.
The reason is that they are not insiders, they have a different nature than we do, they have different experiences than we do, so their advice may not be accurate for our situation. Their intentions are good, and we appreciate their advice, but only for reference. The right to choose and the decision to act is ours. We create the situation, so the solution should also come from us.
I have a friend; whenever there is something he does not understand, he always asks me. I asked back, "What do you think about it?" He thought about it for a moment and then answered himself. When I heard it, I said, "You see, the answer is already in you."
We ourselves are very enthusiastic in giving advice to others. Should we do that? There is a philosopher who said that the easiest thing in the world is to give advice. Because we don't follow it, and because that's not our situation. Because we're not in their shoes and we don't know their complete story. We only hear from one side, some aspects of the matter. If you want to give advice, make sure you take responsibility for what happens to them after they take your advice.
Why do we ask for advice from others? When situations arise, we are confused and do not know how to solve them. On the other hand, we don't want to be responsible for our decision.
If we follow someone's advice, it's easy to blame them. However, we are losing our power without even knowing it. It is the power to discern right from wrong and make decisions. We will become dependent on others. Situation after situation, the more dependent we become, the weaker we will be.
On the other hand, if we bravely take responsibility for our own decisions and learn from the wrong decisions, after each situation our inner strength will be strengthen.