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Time was, if you wanted advice on how to improve or address some problem concerning things like health, finance, relationships, and work, your options for where to get that advice were limited. You could pick up one of the few books on the subject, ask a friend, colleague, or pastor, or send a letter to a newspaper’s advice columnist.<\/span><\/p>\n Boy, how times have changed. <\/span><\/p>\n These days, you walk smack dab into a deluge of advice every time you turn around. There is an abundance of sources that offer to tell you the best way to eat\/exercise\/dress\/speak\/date\/think. Thousands of books, blog articles, and podcasts forward suggestions for better, happier living. Social media feeds are filled with influencers whose right-in-the-camera gaze and slowly unspooling captions arrest your scrolling, as you await what potentially life-changing tips they might dispense.<\/span><\/p>\n How do you sort through the flood of advice out there and decide which recommendations to try implementing in your life?<\/span><\/p>\n You can, of course, start by examining the credentials for the source of the advice, and you can see if their advice is backed by scientific research. But equally expert-level individuals sometimes offer contrary recommendations, studies can be marshaled to support two very different conclusions, and some areas of life haven’t been examined in the lab, and probably never will be.<\/span><\/p>\n You need to employ further filtering mechanisms. To that end, we suggest asking the following four questions. <\/span><\/p>\n Before you decide what advice to take, you need to decide what advice to seek out and listen to or read.<\/span><\/p>\n It’s tempting to want to optimize every aspect of your life. Maybe your exercise routine feels like it’s working for you, but you can’t help but wonder if there’s a way to make it even better. So when you see an article or podcast about how to improve it, you feel a sense of FOMO in not tuning in.<\/span><\/p>\n But there are only so many hours in a day. You can’t consume everything about everything, and you don’t need to waste your time consuming content about aspects of your life you’re already satisfied with. If something’s currently working for you, whatever additional tips you might glean aren’t likely to move the needle in a significant way. Use your limited time to learn about areas of your life that you actively feel are lacking; implementing new ideas on this score can result in significant improvement and will have the highest ROI.<\/span><\/p>\n At the same time, know yourself; recognize how you like to live and the things you’re willing and unwilling to change. For example, maybe you’re a late riser, but every time you see content about the benefits of waking up early, you find something compelling about the idea; it feels like something you should do. But stop and think, “Wait, I’ve tried waking up early before. I hate it. It’s not for me. I don’t need to go down that road again.”<\/span><\/p>\n Know yourself enough that when you see a headline about why you should do things X way, you can shrug and keep scrolling, saying to yourself, “No, I like to do things my way; I’m not interested in changing that.”<\/span><\/p>\n Give yourself permission to ignore stuff about what’s already working in your life.<\/span><\/p>\n So you’ve identified what areas of your life could use improvement, and you’ve dove into the firehose of advice on the subject. <\/span><\/p>\n Now, use these questions to home in on which suggestions to try implementing:<\/span><\/p>\n People think and approach life in ways that are fundamentally different from your own. <\/span><\/p>\n While a lot of people give lip service to this idea, and understand it cognitively, deep down, they still assume that others experience the world in about the same way they do.<\/span><\/p>\n It can take an embarrassingly long time to truly grasp the fact that people operate on different wavelengths. It took us until around midlife to really understand it, and a big help in finally doing so was reading up on the Color Code \u2014 a personality assessment. (Listen to our podcast with its creator, Taylor Hartman<\/a>). <\/span><\/p>\n The Color Code categorizes people into four colors: Reds, who are motivated by power; Blues, who are motivated by intimacy; Yellows who are motivated by fun; and Whites who are motivated by peace.<\/span><\/p>\n When individuals offer advice, they’re telling you what’s worked for <\/span>them<\/span><\/em>. And what’s worked for them is based on what drives them and what they find most rewarding. And what they find most rewarding is based on their particular personality. Even when it comes to research in the social sciences, study results are based on averages, and the averages may not apply to <\/span>you<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n So, while you might have heard that planning a vacation brings people more happiness than actually taking the vacation, that’s probably not true for Yellows, who enjoy more spontaneous experiences. And you might have heard how essential vacations are in general, but Reds probably have less need for them and find them less satisfying than other personality types. <\/span><\/p>\nPrerequisite: Decide If This Is an Issue That Even Needs Addressing<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
4 Questions to Ask in Deciding What Advice to Take<\/span><\/h2>\n
Does the source of the advice have the same personality\/disposition as you?<\/h2>\n