[merylsilverburg]

Originally posted by Rei

This doesn't mean the people who don't follow their own advice are not giving it with sincerity, only that maybe they are good at listening and speaking good old common sense, but then they don't try to "walk in someone else's shoes" when needed.

I don't really agree with you. There are some people who can understand the other person's problems quite well and give them great advice that suits their needs, but when it comes to themselves, they are oblivious on what to do. Not everyone who gives advice always knows what to do with their own situation when it comes up. But a majority of people can't give "empathy advice" only because they've never been in that situation the other is facing. Only a few people can give sincere advice even if they've never "put themselves in the other's shoes".

Some people even find irritating when they give advice and others don't follow it for various reasons. Isn't this way of acting irritating? In this attitude there's the arrogance to say "I gave you advice, which is what you wanted, now don't make me waste my precious time anymore and do what I said. My advice is the only way for you to solve this".

Yes, this is irritating. However, in my case, I've done it on several occasions (telling the other party that I've gave them advice, so why don't they solve it?) only because the other person was being unreasonable and stubborn to follow what I told them. It's these same people who come up to me and say "You know what? I followed your advice and it didn't work out. Why'd you tell me to do that? What's your problem? Did you do this on purpose?" I've experienced that so many times that I became tired. I gave them the advice which were sincere, honest and I put myself in their situation, but they're the ones who have the problem because they're blaming me for not allowing things to work out.

I hate when people do that, that's a good reason to m e to rarely ask for advice of any kind.

That's true, but isn't it even more annoying when the other person gives crappy "advice" such as "Well, why don't you just try to talk to the other person and I'm sure things will work out fine!" or "Why don't you just try your best and if that doesn't work, then talk to a therapist?".