How Do You Define Advice :: Defintion Essays

How Do You Define "Advice" Advice, in my mind, is a form of one person helping another person out; whether it is in words or actions. About 90% of the time, I believe advice comes in the form of words. Advice can be verbally spoken to somebody, or typed/written and given to somebody. In either example, it's advice that's being given to help somebody out. The other way I mentioned was advice given by actions. In my own life, I'm trying to quit smoking cigarettes and finding it hard; especially when I look around and see others doing it. However, the advice I receive when I look around are from those not smoking and those hacking and spitting because they smoke. It's sort of subliminal for me in the sense that I'll be hacking and spitting if I don't quit. So they're giving advice to me in the form of their actions. In mentioning what advice is and how it's given, I ask myself how it works. This happens to be a rough question seeing how advice isn't this little piece of gum on the bottom of my shoe that I can just pick off and toss away. So know I find help in the example of John Sweat and his mechanic friend to help explain how advice works. John was stuck in a pickle jar and wasn't sure what to do. But his friend knew where he was in the jar (because he had been there himself), and decided to offer some advice. John was able to get unstuck because he listened to his friend and took his advice, believing that his friend knew what he was speaking about, and sensing his sincerity. By looking at this example, I have come to the conclusion that advice works when one person takes a conscious (or in my smoking example - an unconscious) effort, to give somebody an honest, experienced point-of-view about a situation in order to give that person help. From there, the advice will only work if the person receiving the advice takes it to heart and uses it. OK, so if this is how it works, what are some ways that it doesn't work? Well, it doesn't work when the advice giver is trying to use his advice given for his own personal gain. I believe the dark forces are at work here and therefore, they cannot succeed! Another way advice given doesn't work is when the person receiving the advice doesn't take it, like in my example of getting advice from my Dad.