I once saw a Tweet that said something along the lines of “When I was in my 20s, I wish I was better at taking the advice I heard from others.”
Although I don’t know exactly what ‘advice’ the author of this Tweet was referring to (Money advice? Career advice? Relationship advice? Mindset advice?), it made me think about how we’re constantly bombarded with advice from strangers online but not taught how to vet the advice we’re given and figure out whether or not we should take it.
In the digital age, we’re exposed to the philosophies, mindsets, systems, and routines of others and are flooded with advice and ‘hacks’ for every nook and cranny of our lives.
So how do you prime yourself to be someone who is able to consume all this advice, make sense of it, determine whether or not it’s advice that aligns with your morals, mindset, and lifestyle, and actually implement the advice into your life?
Well, I’m here to discuss potential ways of doing this.
It’s important to not only be open to advice from others but to know how to determine whether or not you should take the advice.
Just because you see advice on the internet about how to invest your money, doesn't mean you should take it. Because in all honestly, the person giving you that advice may not even have their personal finances in order, but they’re giving people money advice. Oh, the joys of the internet.
By reading this article, here’s the change I want you to be able to see-
Old you: Scrolls on X, sees a tweet like “The best five things to do to improve your focus” and thinks, “Oh, this is interesting. I’d def benefit from implementing that into my life,” and promptly forgets all about what you just read as you close out the X app and open YouTube to watch a video.
New you: Scrolls on X, sees a tweet like “The best five things to do to improve your focus” and thinks, “Oh, this is interesting. I’d def benefit from implementing that into my life,” and promptly opens the notes app on your phone to think through how you would implement this advice into your own life and how you would tweak it to make it your own.
So, How Do You Vet & Implement the Advice You Get Online?
First, you need to vet the information and the person.
Ask yourself basic things that make you question the person from whom the advice comes. First and foremost, is this person a real person or are they a bot? Does this person have a large or small following? Although this isn’t an exact indicator of their trustworthiness or their intentions, it can still be a factor that you consider.
What type of content does this person typically post? Is the advice you’re looking at along the same lines as what they usually post or is it out of left field?
What gives this person credibility? Do they work in the industry they’re talking about? Do they have life experiences that add to their credibility?
Now, these next questions are hard to judge just from someone's online presence, but it’s worth asking yourself these questions as you continue to vet the advice and the person giving it.
Do they live the type of life that aligns with your personal morals and values? Are they a good person who lifts other people up? Or do they spend time on the internet as a troll? What have you heard from other people about this person?
Now, to vet the advice itself, you should look at whether or not the advice aligns with your values and morals for life.
You should think about how implementing this advice would affect your thoughts, words, actions, habits, and routines. Would it make you a better or worse person?
Think about how the advice, if you were to implement it, you impact your present life and your future life, the one you hope to be true one day.
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t ask myself this question with every single piece of advice I see on the internet. But if it’s advice I’m considering implementing, I do ask myself these questions.
It’s important to vet the advice you see and to take serious precautions in implementing some random person's advice on the internet.
We can’t let people, society, or trends determine how we live our lives. We must stay authentic to who we are and who we want to be, and one way to do that is by vetting the advice we get.
These questions don’t just go for online advice- in reality, you should ask yourself these questions with any advice you’re considering implementing into your life, whether it’s advice on the internet. Form a book, or from your parents.
Now, how do you actually implement the advice after you’ve properly vetted it?
#1 Write it Down
If it’s advice that makes you stop and think, if it’s advice you believe will make you a better version of yourself, or if it’s advice you deem admirable, it should be written down somewhere.
With all the advice and hacks that are thrown our way, it’s all too easy to forget the good stuff.
Plus, your brain isn’t meant to be a storage unit. No, it’s meant to be an idea generator, a master creator.
Don’t put so much pressure on yourself and your forgetful brain to remember the good advice. Write it down somewhere.
#2 Consider the Long-Term Impact
It’s easy to want to implement advice when the benefits seem low cost and high reward.
But it’s important to consider the long-term impacts advice you implement may or may not have on your life.
Because whether or not you implement the advice you deem worthy for one day, one month, or one year, it has the ability to have a long-term impact.
Advice that you implement can negatively impact your life if it doesn’t align with your morals and values. Even further, if it’s advice that’s unmaintainable for your lifestyle or current discipline, the failure to maintain the advice can reduce the confidence you have in yourself.
These are the minute details about advice-taking that people often overlook. If you can consider these factors before implementing the advice, you’ll be better off in the long run.
#3 Be Realistic
You can’t and shouldn’t take every piece of advice you read on the Internet, get from your friends, or that you heard from your parents growing up.
Being a consumer of advice from others means you have to have a sense of reality and what’s feasible (and right) to implement into your life versus what’s not.
Thinking that you should implement every piece of advice you get from Alex Hormonzi because you see him as highly successful and generally agree with most of what he publicly posts online is a mistake.
Alex Hormonzi is Alex Hormonzi. You’re you. Not Alex Hormonzi. The way he thinks, acts, speaks, and wants to live his life is distinctly different than how you think, act, speak, and want to live your life even if you want to be a successful entrepreneur like him.
This goes the same for your parents and family members. Often when we receive advice from people in real life it has well-to-do intentions and is based on their personal experiences. Which could be similar but are likely nothing like your personal experiences.
Just because someone knows you well or their blood doesn’t mean you’re obligated to take their advice.
Also, be realistic in the sense of knowing whether or not the advice is something you’re able to implement in your life.
You may receive the best piece of advice ever, but if you’re not in a place in your life to properly implement and execute it, it’s not going to be very helpful.
#4 Remix the Advice You Get
The only way to successfully implement the advice you read, watch, or listen to online is if you remix it and make it fit into your life.
It’s not about shaping your life to fit into the advice you get. It’s about shaping the advice you get to fit into your life.
This is how you get a high rate of success for the advice you implement into your life.
Learning how to remix the advice you get and apply it properly to your life gives you leverage over others who are trying to implement that same advice.
If you see online that you should spend time in the sunlight within the first 30 minutes you wake up, but that’s unrealistic for you for many reasons, either figure out an alternative like a light that mimics sunlight that you sit in front of while you do your makeup.
Or try to understand why this advice is given (typically in the context of trying to help regulate your circadian rhythm) and determine if there are other ways you can regulate your circadian rhythm, if it’s advice that’s important to you.
Advice doesn’t need to be taken as something that’s cut and dry. You’re allowed to interpret advice any way you want and remix the advice to better suit your life and your goals.
Real Talk
We’re never really taught in life how to vet advice given to us or the proper ways of implementing advice.
These things may seem intuitive but when you think about it, the act of vetting and implementing advice you receive is complex and worth your time to investigate.
We’re also not often told that we don’t have to take all the advice we hear, especially the advice that comes from spouses, parents, siblings, or best friends.
If there’s anything I want you to take from this article, it’s that-
Before taking advice, ask yourself if it’s from someone you trust and if it aligns with your personal morals and values
Your life wasn’t made to fit advice, but rather, advice was made to fit into your life
Good luck out there, and remember to always use your best judgement.