When someone close to you is suffering, or perhaps in your opinion, not making the right choices, then there is a well-intentioned temptation to fix them.
We base a good deal of this on our own experiences in life and feel the need to impart our lessons to others, as Stephen Covey would say, in an autobiographical way.
However, others rarely want to hear our stories versus being able to tell theirs. They even more rarely want you to tryto fix them, especially as most often the case is, we haven’t even listened to them. We’ve simply based our ideas looking at it through our lens, so entirely from our perspective.
We all have uniquely different journeys and sets of experiences and the only way we can even provide any useful advice is to first listen and understand and secondly avoid the ‘well, when I was doing…’ type of advice.
People aren’t broken, listen without judgement and with empathy to understand them and give advice if asked.
Washing machines and cars need fixing not people.
Philip Dodson 