Advice lesson: don’t advise
Consistency For 5 Years, When Does Silent Support Gets Loud?
The advice I wrote on Quora for silent support. Nothing changed.
And there it was: an upvote for an answer I had given on Quora, five years ago. I have checked it five times. Yes, it was that long ago. Meanwhile, my mind was telling me: ‘You wrote that last week, somewhere. In your newsletter or on FB, or in a LinkedIn post. Maybe a bit longer than a week ago, but NOT five years!’.
Well, sorry and not sorry for my inner voice: it was actually, absolutely certainly a full hand of years ago. But I understand why my mind played tricks on me because every word of it could have been written by me, yesterday.
Nothing changed, I’m consistent and still not getting ‘loud enough’. It’s such a shame because it is great advice and we can all utilize it, every day. Let me show you my answer to the question ‘How do you respond to someone in pain or sick?’
Be ‘quiet’, don’t talk very much, BE THERE for them and don’t make a fuss about it (even when you had to arrange a 1000 things so you could be near them!).
Ask how they are ‘now’. This is vital!! It gives you the possibility to ask about slightly better times or to say ‘so glad to hear it is slightly better now.”
