What is the BEST advice you have ever received?
Recently my son, Bryan, had to fill in a questionnaire relating to a survey. One of the questions was, “What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?”
This was his response:-
My dad and mum have had a great influence on my life and it is tough to determine which of the 3 below I consider the best.
Mum told me once that I should always look after myself first so that I am in a position of strength to help others. If ever I feel emotional about a situation that I feel is going wrong in my life I know that my mum will always come up with something totally amazing to help me out. What she told me here helped me out with a situation I was in about 15 years ago.
Dad has always told me to keep an open mind. When I was a child he would point to the stars and tell me about the possibilities that exist due to the unknown. This has helped me to develop an “outside the box” thinking attitude which increases my problem solving skills.
Dad recommended a set of books “total success library” for me to read, written by Dr Robert Anthony. This set of books was the best self development material that I have ever read and I feel that my life has improved since reading them. My girlfriend is currently reading one of them and she is incredibly impressed with it too. She asked if she could highlight parts that she liked. As it turns out, she has been highlighting just about every paragraph.
One thing mentioned in the books was something like “you always do the best you can for your present level of awareness”. I found this information very useful as it can be used for a number of things. If you are aware of this, then it is easier to forgive yourself, and hence forgive others. There is no right or wrong, it only exists for your present level of awareness (or belief system, as others have written in other books).
When I read what my son had written, I felt very proud of him and pleased that he had actually taken notice of at least some things that my wife and I had tried to teach him over the years.
The “Total Success Library” certainly helped me to overcome my depression and that is why I have included it in the Resource Section of the Beat Your Depression blog. In fact I rate this right at the top of my recommended resources. It is a valuable tool for dealing with many aspects of life, including relationships and financial matters, and represents extremely good value for money.