I can’t really think of any funny advice I’ve received in the sense of it making me laugh. But I have received some odd or just plain misleading advice over the years. The main one is that old chestnut, “just be yourself.” Well, which self? You mean choose one and just be that all the time? How do I choose? And I’m fairly sure not many people will actually like that “self,” so does that mean I’m some kind of genuine version of myself, but alone? Also who in the world is just one person all the time? Who doesn’t edit their persona to fit into different social situations? I can’t exactly take my sweary, blurry bar persona to a mommy group. Likewise I can’t start chatting about impending menopause and various medical issues at a dinner party (at least, not most of them) because it would be gross and a downer. If I had shown up at work back in the day wearing my usual outfit or my going out weekend outfits I’d be sent home to change because there are dress codes, and I don’t think a single person wears what they’d wear for an office job outside the office very often. We all create versions of ourselves, and we all use our social understanding to put our best social foot forward in most situations. So that advice seemed fairly meaningless to me.
The only other thing I can think of that now seems a little amusing (sorry Dad) is when my Dad said I should take college courses based on what I was interested in. I enjoyed learning, had a great experience with school…. but I didn’t like the job I got out of college and am now in my 40s and not only unemployed, but fairly sure I’m unemployable. It was well meaning, but probably I should have learned a trade. Everyone needs an electrician.
That’s it for me this week! Have you guys received any genuinely laughable advice? Did you twist the prompt a bit this week to find something that fit?
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I completely agree about ‘being yourself’. We all have the propensity to be social chameleons, slightly (or drastically, depending on the person) adjusting our personalities to fit social norms of the company we’re in, it’s just human nature. So, yeah, when you think about it, it is rather complicated advice!
Also, to take courses you’re interested in is such a parent thing to say and is sometimes followed by ‘if you do something you enjoy, then you’ll never work a day in your life.’ 😀
Yeah, it was definitely something I did without even noticing it. I remember when I was traveling as a teen realizing that I didn’t actually know what music I liked because I’d mostly listened to what all my friends were into. At that point I started trying to figure out what was actually me, and that was a bit of a turning point. But I still mask and perform versions of myself to a point. Yeah, my Dad worked very hard to set up his own business, but he did have a luck break in knowing from a young age what he wanted to do. I never have, and so it’s always been hard to sustain interest in any one topic. Makes more sense now I know about my ADHD. So it wasn’t bad advice, but didn’t really help with figuring out a career path. I did love my post-secondary schooling though, and if I could have made a career out of that I’d have been a very happy person who “never had to work a day in my life”!