Why I Am Picky on Giving Advice
By: Dylan Hughes
Tags: Advice, Life Lessons, Writing, Self Improvement, Life

Getting lost in motivational videos or stories can be empowering. You feel like you’re at a low point in life and need something to pull you out of it. The likes of Joe Rogan, David Goggins, Jordan Peterson, and others lay out stories of survival and overcoming.

Listening to others tell their stories of escaping lows and reaching highs can be very motivating. If Goggins can shed weight like it’s nothing and turn into one of the most accomplished military men ever, why can’t I find similar success in achieving my dreams?

Eventually, you get sick of the videos and start getting to work. You start having some success. Then, you want to tell everyone your story and how they can find success, too.

2020 has been a tumultuous year for me. Yes, I know — I’m not special. It has sucked for many people.

I dug myself into perhaps the deepest hole I’ve ever been in, spending my days focusing on unimportant things and questioning my own self-worth. I felt very lost and didn’t know where to go.

After confronting my issues and what was causing them, I removed the troubling causes from my life and started looking forward. I re-discovered Medium and my love for writing.

I began writing on what I thought I felt I could best advise an audience on: investing in the stock market. After reading more and more self-help Medium articles and recalling my motivational YouTube indulgences, I asked myself, “why can’t I write these types of stories?”

From a numbers standpoint, these types of articles clearly brought in views and attention. Everyone is looking to improve themselves in some way, and Medium writers have realized the vast demand for that kind of content.

The more you read these articles, though, the more you realize how useless many of them are.

There are people that have important stories to tell with useful advice attached. But there are just as many stories that are copy-and-paste — writers using the experience of others to give advice without actually using the advice themselves.

It’s understandable why people do this. The idea of self-help will sell. Again, people want to improve themselves. If you can offer some sort of a solution for someone’s struggles, they will feel great coming away from your article.

The advice doesn’t carry weight when it is not your own, however.

Many times I have come away from a motivational YouTube video wanting to pass the lessons I learned along to others. Before doing so, however, I figured I should try taking the advice for myself first. Then, with some actual results to pair with the advice, I could write a useful story for my readers.

To this point, I am proud to not have abused the needy motivational audience and shoved someone else’s advice down their throats.

I have written on why diets suck because I have experience with diets. I have written on how large corporations can both kill and spark creativity in other areas because I have experience with it. I wrote on my happiness after actually experiencing happiness.

Moving forward, I will continue to only write on my own experiences because the audience deserves authentic, personal advice. I hope my fellow writers on this platform will do the same.