Listen to the elders

Had small talk today with M over lunch. We were talking about listening to our parents/elders' advices.

People generally do not take in advice, sometimes, even good advice.

I start to examine myself. How often do I really take someone's advice and actually listen to their advice and not merely hearing? How often do I actually embrace it? Then, I realised, many times, I did listen but I did nothing about it. I would make up all sorts of excuses for not following the advice and worse, I debate about it. This had become a habit, a very bad habit.

"Everyone's doing it" seems like a winning argument when I was young. But my parents never gave in to such pleas no matter how desperate I was to get their permission to do something they believed was unsafe or unwise. My parents were very strict with me. Thinking back, they were strict for good reasons. It's their ways of protecting me. They would always give me reasonable advices whenever they rejected my request. Just that, most of the time, I did not take in their advices. Those were the years when I was rebellious.

Growing up, I learnt to appreciate advices from them as well as from other people. I learnt to listen and take in advices. Of course, I would analyse the advice first before taking the next step. Everybody been through or experienced life differently. Do not reject any advices, even if it's irrelevant or bad ones.  

I am thankful that my parents were strict with me back then, never gave up on me and still willing to give me advices even when I hardly listened. Them being strict and their advices gave me a kind of freedom, freedom from being tied to my own desires. 

What do you think? Do you listen to advice? Comment below with your thoughts and share your experiences. Have a good one!