Filtering advice
- At April 09, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
0
Seeking advice is, well, highly advisable as you pursue a more suitable career and journey through life. It is shocking at times to suddenly realize, yet again, how small, fragile, and limited humans really are. Even the best and the brightest among us must, at least occasionally if not regularly, ask for assistance and seek out the advice of others.
Notice, though, that you will be talking to, or reading a book written by, another limited human being. Even the experts do not know everything. Unless God shows up, in this case to give specific and clear career and life guidance (and this does happen from time to time), you will need to get in the habit of carefully evaluating the advice you receive.
A growing understanding of who you are under God will function like a filter. Setting boundaries is, I am told, a basic skill that is normally acquired early on in life. I am not you. You are not me. That toy is mine, although I may be encouraged to share it with you. This sounds straightforward enough although the implications are profound. But one problem is that developing a deeper sense of who you really are, determining how you are similar to and different from another particular person, can take a really long time.
Be aware, as you mix and mingle, that career suggestions can be based, often unconsciously, on the interests, dreams, personality, strengths, and convictions of the person you happen to be talking to. You may find yourself listening to excellent career or life advice that is perfect for somebody like them and not quite as appropriate for you. Your new friend may mean well and think that they want what is best for you; the only problem is that they do not really know you.
In your friend’s defense, you can’t really expect them to know you if you haven’t taken the time to get to know yourself and let them in, just a little, on the real you. Yes, the importance of healthy navel-gazing has just been hammered home once again on this blog. And you are indeed noticing a pattern.
Four words to keep in mind as you filter career and life advice: I am not you.
