I want advice so I can get results

Let's first find out the meaning of some common words from Oxford Languages, who provide an evidence-based approach to creating dictionaries in order to provide the most accurate picture of a language.

Information are facts provided or learned about something or someone.
Opinion is a view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.
Wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement.
Advice is guidance or recommendations offered with regard to prudent future action.

\[ Advice = Wisdom + Prudence \]

Simply put, advice is an personal action plan. It requires the depth of information, the ability of opinion, supported by prudent wisdom, to deliver an actionable plan.

Do I want advice?

Now that we have understood what advice is, do we all want it? As with most things, it depends. Here is a simple self-check list to know if we are seeking advice:

1. Why is the outcome important to me?
2. How can I achieve this outcome?
3. What can make this simpler, quicker, and increase the chance of success?

In other words, advice is specifically for those, who have decided for themselves, that they would exhaust all means and resources possible to achieve this goal. We must be welcoming of guidance, and yearn to act on it.

The first steps

Advice seekers and givers must clear significant hurdles, such as a deeply ingrained tendency to prefer their own opinions, irrespective of their merit, and the fact that careful listening is hard, time-consuming work. The whole interaction is a subtle and intricate art. On both sides it requires emotional intelligence, self-awareness, restraint, diplomacy, and patience.
- Harvard Business Review

Who to seek advice from

We are now ready to receive counsel, who then should we seek it from? More often than not, the results we need now will compound into future wants and needs. It is merely a small link in the bigger chain of things. The likelihood of us outgrowing our adviser is extremely high, and we should acknowledge and accept that. The loyalty is to our long-term outcome need for our lives.

There are two ways to go about this:

1. An adviser that has competence in most of our journey, if not all.
2. An adviser that is renowned is our current segment, up till the immediate big milestone.

In the ideal world, all of us would prefer option 1, however, it is likely that the adviser in this context would be a professional team of people. This group work together extremely closely, allowing them to quickly align the overall advice with all our contextual intricacies, to deliver advice with great precision and efficacy. It would be great if we are willing to bear the cost of it.

Which is why most of us will settle for an adviser that can only get me to my next milestone and not beyond. This arrangement cost less in terms of time, energy and money today. However, just like we need to make new friends every time we enter the next chapter of our education, we have to become tabula rasa and begin anew. Simply because the focus was just to attain the most immediate result.

This could possibly the most challenging step purely because it is difficult to get to the point of mutual comprehension, alignment and trust. It is like finding another you that will act for the best interest of you. Then imagine trying to do that each time you get onto your next milestone.

So taking into consideration all things, who we might need is really an adviser (team) that can grow with us, through our journey, from beginning to the end.

Getting the results

This is where we need to leave all doubts, excuses and criticism behind. The fastest way to get results is to simply act, and implement the advice immediately. Let the scores speak for the effectiveness of the plan so we may decide on the next course of action. It is essential that we have an effective feedback loop, so we can adjust and tune the plan as needed.

Of course, one of the questions of any failure would be "do I need to change adviser?", or "do I need to verify with someone else?". We should have an internal framework, a decision making process, that inherently guides us as to when we should reconsider a previous decision, and if we need to make the change.

Ever-different water flows over those who step in the same river.
- Heraclitus