People who give great advice are fabulous. Brush up on your skills below:
1. LISTEN.
Most of the time people can come up with their own advice/plan of action. What they really need is someone to listen. When your friend is upset about a fight with their boyfriend, don’t spend 25 minutes talking about how much you hate their stupid boyfriend anyway. Simply say, “I’m sorry that happened to you. Tell me about it.” Then put away your iPhone and actually pay attention for 10 minutes. Also, offer to make tea.
2. BLANKET ADVICE.
When you speak, there are a few, well-chosen sayings and questions that are applicable in almost all advice scenarios. They are inoffensive and encourage the advice-seeker to reflect and consider their options. Read below:
“What makes this situation scary/exciting/embarassing/whatever?” The person seeking advice probably needs to sort out and organize their feelings. This question is the emotional equivalent of folding laundry and helps get all the different thoughts into their proper categories.
“What do you think will happen now?” No matter what the scenario, this allows a person to reflect on what they think is coming up next. Ask, then sit back and listen (see above).
“Everything will work out in the end. If things are not working out, it’s not the end” You could follow this up with statement 1 to sound slightly less like Eckhart Tolle.
3. DISTRACTIONS.
So distractions aren’t technically advice. Whatever. You could give the advice to be distracted, but a TRULY fabulous person will just provide distractions without even mentioning it. Spinning. Football. Dancing. Bad TV. Whatever. People love distractions! For example, aren’t these puppies ADORABLE?
Now, what were we talking about again?
SEE?
Comment below–what is some of the best advise you’ve ever gotten?
For some advice about how to keep your friendships fabulous, click here.