Stop giving advice unless someone asks for it. People want to be heard and understood, not fixed. Just listen deeply when they share something with you, and only offer guidance if they explicitly request it.
There is one thing that has helped me so much to improve my relationships with my family, friends, and team, and that is not giving advice unless it is asked for. Too often when our friends, partner, parents, kids come and share something with us, we unknowingly start slipping our advice into the conversation. Why don't you try this? Or you should have done that. And even though our intentions are pure, do you know that giving unasked advice actually pushes people away from us? We don't realize But when people come and open up to us or share their heart with us, all they want is someone to hear them, understand them, not someone to advise them. So unless you hear the other person say something like, can you please guide me? I'm really confused, you know it's not your space to give advice. And it's far better at that time to practice genuine, deep, authentic listening. This is something that's immensely helped me, and I just felt like sharing it with you.
