Six Tips to Make the Most Out of Advice

Advice, criticism, feedback or whatever you call it is one of the biggest opportunities for us to grow, yet we do not take advantage of it often enough. Here are six tips to make the most of the advice you receive.

1. Do not take it personally: This is hard to do and it is the extremely important. The advice, feedback and criticism can be hard to take at times. We are being told that we can improve which for many of us comes off as us being inadequate and not enough. Acknowledge these feelings but do not dwell on them. These people are not trying to make you feel bad they are trying to help you. Figure out how you can use the advice that you have been given.
   
2. Stop seeing it as a negative: Everyone can improve, no matter how successful they are. There is no end to improving. Instead of seeing it as a place where you are inadequate see it as an opportunity to grow and become even better.
   
3. Take immediate action: Change is hard and it only gets harder the more you put it off. There will always be another “tomorrow”. Taking immediate action will start you on the path to becoming the best version of yourself. It sounds scary but it is one step. You do not have to know every step. You just need the courage to take the first step and your destination in mind.
   
4. Take at least one step every day. Success is not stationary, it moves. If you have ever tried to climb up an escalator that is going down you know what success is. If you take it step by step, you will eventually get to the top but if you just stand there, you are going to keep going lower and lower and you will then have that much more ground to cover. Success is attainable but it requires movement and the more you do the better off you are
   
5. Ask for advice before it is given to you: Be proactive in your pursuit of being even more kick ass. Focus on how you can get even better. Take control of your future.
   
6. Be grateful for the people that give you advice: In one of my first jobs out of college, I had managers that would not give me feedback no matter how much I asked for it. It sucked. In other jobs I had managers that gave me advice even when I did not ask for it. If I had to make a choice I would choose getting advice. When someone gives you advice and truly means it, it is one of the biggest compliments that you can ever receive. They are investing their valuable time in you. What is better proof of how worthy you are and how valuable you are than someone taking time out of their day to help you become even more kick ass?