Tag: advice

The most profound advice? Most of the advice I have been given in the past wasn’t all that deep or profound. Advice like you can marry a rich one as easy as a poor one, to Oh, you’re depressed? You should work out more. Let’s see what other gems have I encountered?

You can just choose to be happy, it was as simple as that. If you work really hard, you can accomplish anything. When I think of the word profound, I think of something beyond the obvious, beyond the casual you’ll make it if you really want to. Who desires to be a homeless person or an unemployed person? If we could all just wish our perfect lives into being, then we’d all be living those lives. So, obviously there is more than wishing and hard work involved.

I’m still stuck on profound. Profound suggests deep impactful meaning, something extraordinary. If I was given profound advice, I am afraid I have forgotten it. I wonder what it would have been?

Along time ago in a galaxy far away, I was lucky enough to have gotten an interview with George RR Martin. You know, the author of a Song of Ice and Fire, better known these days as a Game of Thrones. Anyway, I was and wish I still could be a fan of his. We share a birthday and some of my favorite authors are also his.

However, I was doing said interview via phone for an ezine I was a part of. I was married at the time to a man who was addicted to long distance calls and so we had our long distance removed from the phone plan. This was back in the day of land lines, no cell phones available.

Well, I neglected to remedy this, and I couldn’t connect to New Mexico and I couldn’t figure out why. By the time I did, it was too late. He was mad to be stood up and sent me an email about how I wasted his time. Time he could have been writing and that I was contributing to his delay in finishing his book. The Book would have been A Feast for Crows, I believe. I get why he was mad, and he wouldn’t reschedule.

I guess the lesson here was to be prepared. Ironically, the most profound advice I’d ever heard was the boy scout motto. Be prepared. I guess it still is. I have learned to try to anticipate things, and double check things since then. It is still the best advice I have actually used. I would recommend it to others as well. It is simple, yet is useful for many different situations.

I can’t help but recall the journalist professor who I confided in that I was struggling mentally; her advice was that I should just work out more. That was her cure for depression. She didn’t ask for more information. I was in a controlling abusive relationship at the time that was incompatible with focusing on school or anything outside of him, and I could have used a kind listening ear. Instead I felt shut out and treated like a fool. She also said I was basically too late anyway. I should have all ready be publishing articles. I was 28, ancient and past my prime. But not too old to take my money for courses. I felt like I was wasting her and my time. So, no more confiding there. I just tried until it became impossible. I never did complete my Bachelor’s degree. Close but no cigar.

I suppose bad advice can also effect decision making sometimes for the better. We all learn somewhat by what we experience. The good and the bad all help make us into what we are. It is like the polishing of a stone. Time and water will do it over a long long time, but we can also get to the same place by being placed in a rock tumbler. Either way we end up polished in the end.