“If you propose to speak, always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind”
Nothing appears to be going right. The worst part? No one gets it, even though they might claim to.
Even though you know this is all temporary–it always is–you feel the need to ask other people what you should do. If they say what you want to hear, you’re relieved. But it doesn’t usually work that way. In fact, oftentimes you’re more frustrated than you were before once they put their two cents in.
We’ve all been there before.
Think back real hard—what in particular helped or irked you about advice people gave you? Did they say you should have done something differently (which wasn’t very useful after the fact)?
Did they tell you to stop feeling sorry for yourself because other people have bigger problems? Did they offer some platitudes or
cliche advice that sounded impossible to follow?
When friends have problems that seem incurable and never-ending, you can sense that hopelessness. And you want to fix it, which always seems so simple when you’re sitting on the outside.Oftentimes, you’re not sure what to say because you don’t feel qualified to give advice but you feel compelled to say something. But it always looks different when you’re inside the mess than it is when you’re standing on the sidelines.
And even if other people have much larger problems, we still dwell on our own because what matters, in that moment, is how we feel.
Sometimes, you just have to accept the fact that you can’t, at least not instantly, help someone when they’re in a fragile state. That’s OK. Most of the time when someone comes to you, they’re not expecting you to have all the answers or even talk.
They just want someone to lend an ear and be by their side through a difficult time.
Realizing this is key to delivering good advice. It isn’t always composed of words and answers. Here’s how you can be helpful to a person in their darkest of times.
