Why the advice to yourself sucks.

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Athletter

Why the advice to yourself sucks.

Solomon's Paradox:

In the Old Testament, King Solomon was known for his incredible wisdom.

One day, two women appeared before him:

Both claiming to be the mother of a baby.

They both lived in the same house and gave birth at a similar time.

Tragically, one of the babies died.

Now, both women are claiming the live baby is theirs.

What did King Solomon do?

He proposed a solution: to divide the baby in half.

One of the women agreed.

If she couldn’t have the baby, neither should the other...

The other was horrified.

She immediately begged Solomon to spare the baby, even if it meant giving it to the other woman.

Solomon had his answer.

Based on their reactions, Solomon knew the second woman was the mother.

It seemed like Solomon never failed to give wise advice.

But for some reason, his own life was a mess…

• He was unfaithful

• Obsessed with money

• Wasn't in his kids' lives

The point:

King Solomon gave wise advice but couldn't implement it into his own life.

I can see how this plays out in my life:

I can give clear, rational advice to others, but struggle to do the same for myself.

For example:

I’m currently mentoring athletes on their journey.

What I’ve realized:

It’s easy to stay rational when there's no emotional attachment.

When emotions get involved, things get messy.

So… What can we do about it?

After doing research on the topic,

I found a cool exercise to try:

Have a conversation with your 85 yr old self.

I gave it a try...

Here’s my result:

If you can’t take the advice from your current self...

Maybe you can take it from your 85 yr old self.

Give it a go - it's worth a try.

That’s it for today, thanks for reading!