Using good advice – Putting what you have learned to work

Much advice that you receive you can use instantly to not only help yourself, but also your business.

The advice that is not usable instantly is the hardest to use and it normally falls into two categories.

The advice is good, but the timing for using that advice is not correct. For instance, wearing a warm coat outside in cold weather is good advice. However, if it is not cold outside today or if you are not going outside, you need to “remember” the good advice and wear a warm coat when it is cold outside and you are going outside.

The second type of “delayed” good advice is much harder to use, because it involves personal growth. You need to gain “experience” and/or maturity in certain areas before you will be ready to put the good advice good use.

When I was in college, I got invited to the “lake” with a group of guys who where going to water ski. I stated that I did not know how to water ski, but the group informed me that my not skiing was not a problem. The needed a “lookout” to watch skiers and communicate what was happening to the boat driver.

After a few hours as the lookout for the skiers, I was literally thrown in the water and told to put on the skis. My ultimatum--I was going to ski or I was going to have a long swim back to shore.

While slowly putting on the water skis, I anxiously searched my memory. I had read a book about water skiing a few years before and I desperately attempted to recall as much as I could of what I had read.

Fortunately I was able to recall enough of what I had read that I was able to get up on the water skis the first time. I was extremely relieved not to have to swim the long way back to shore.

In fact, I did so well with the skiing that I got accused of “bending the truth.”

T. C.

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