 Finding someone who tells you what you want to hear is simple, but the person who genuinely tells you what you need to learn is rare. Thus, you must try to be less strong-headed and adhere to wise counsel. In this video, I will show you 13 pieces of good advice that people don't listen to. 1. Take time to know yourself One short yet profound word of counsel from the Asian philosopher Aristotle is Know Thyself. A lot of people today experience identity crisis regularly because they refuse to heed to Aristotle's advice. Knowing yourself is not just about skimming the surface. Like finding your favorite food, color or music genre, it goes deeper. It involves shutting out the outward distractions and indeed extracting the details of yourself from within you. For you to know yourself, you must possess a high degree of mindfulness and you must be willing to accept every aspect of you, which can be a challenging task, which is why many people do not indulge in in-depth self-discovery. However, taking out time to know your deepest fears, vulnerabilities, allergies, insecurities and the likes will do you a whole lot of good throughout your lifetime. 2. Narrow your focus One of the reasons why people fail to reach their goals is because they get so overwhelmed by the bulk of things that there is to be done that they give up even before completing tasks. Many people assume that it is the more things you do, the bigger your results. But then, it is the series of small wins that gives the most significant success. When you try to rush through so many big tasks, you will not be able to perform them accurately. Being busy does not necessarily mean that a tangible result will be gutten. It is what you were busy doing and how much of your concentration is invested on it that determines its outcome. So, a better way to be productive is to focus on and complete essential tasks, one after the other. 3. Start with what you have Waiting to have all the needed experience and resources before embarking on a task is one reason why many people procrastinate activities and end up doing nothing. Most times, I don't have all that I need so that I can start now is an excuse born out of fear, a fear you have failed to admit. Many of the rich men you see today started with the little they had. In fact, some of them started with nothing. For instance, the big online retail store Amazon started in Jeff's garage. 4. Don't make assumptions People most times are so quick to jump into conclusions. Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry Isaac Asimov described assumptions as dirt that can block light from coming into your life. Not only do assumptions hinder you from getting knowledge, but they can also make you feel stupid before others because opinions breathed through assumptions are often unreasonable. If you must contribute to a subject, then you should ask questions and seek facts. Mexican author Don Miguel Ruiz advices don't make assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. 5. Avoid the blame game When people make mistakes, rather than accept their faults and make corrections, they look for the closest person to blame. Some folks even go as far as blaming inanimate objects and weather conditions. Well, for them, anyone else and anything else except them have to take the blame. Nevertheless, it is much more profitable to avoid the blame game. The truth of the matter is that blaming others solves nothing. It only gets you angrier and makes you feel more justified. An anonymous writer once wrote, blaming others takes the time and energy for self-improvement. So, rather than blame others, look for solutions. 6. Don't spend to impress Many young individuals are guilty of this pattern of living. There are a bunch of adverse effects attached to spending to impress. One is that when your pocket is empty, those who jeered you into spending will leave to find the next available foolish spender. Don't let the deceptive appearance of those around you lure you into making spending decisions that your future self will regret. Many of those friends whose lifestyle you are trying to copy are faking it. If you continue to ignore this great advice, then you should be prepared to be in debt. 7. Treat others the way you want to be treated One of the world's famous rules which a lot of people ignore is, do unto others what you want others to do to you. It is pretty easy to complain about the way we are being treated while shutting our eyes at the way we treat other people. But then, we forget that karma never forgets and does not respect anyone. When it is time for it to act, it sure does. Thus, there is a need for us to turn our concern from how we are treated to how we treat people. When you begin to treat people well, you will be treated with respect. 8. Don't ignore your weaknesses In a bid to focus on their strengths, many individuals seem to overlook their shortcomings. Indeed, for you to be successful in life, you ought to maximize your strength. But ignoring your weakness will only cause ruin later on. Floors are a part of everyone's life and is a part of what makes you who you are. One company's research found that 60% of their leaders were able to make significant positive changes when they worked to change their weaknesses. If you will accept your flaws and face them head-on, you can amplify them so that they don't become an obstacle to your personal and professional goals. 9. Expect the best, prepare for the worst One of the worst misconceptions that a person can ever have is confusing being unrealistic with being positive and being realistic with being negative. If you must succeed on any journey in life, you must expect the best, being positive and be prepared for the worst, being realistic. Life is filled with hurdles, some of them your fate cannot conceal, you have to face them. So build a prepared mindset so you don't get swayed by unavoidable challenges. 10. Do what is right, not what is comfortable Doing what is right rather than what is easy takes a lot of courage and discipline, which is why lots of people do not heed to the advice. According to Margaret C.S., the right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for what is right when it's unpopular is a true test of moral character. Certain times you may be fixed with difficult situations and it feels like the only way to survive it is to take the easy way. But bear in mind that although the right way is the hard way, its returns are more beneficial. 11. Don't be afraid to admit that you are scared Sometimes the one thing you need for growth is the one thing you are most afraid to do. Trying to cover your friends will not make you any braver. Neither will admitting that you are scared make you more like a chicken. Even superheroes get scared. The difference between a brave person and a coward is not the feeling of fear. It is the reaction towards the feeling. When you don't acknowledge your concerns at the start of a task, you might end up getting dazed during the job and even drop the task. 32nd President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, once asserted courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear. 12. Listen more than you speak One quote which is popularly attributed to epic textus, a great philosopher, goes thus, We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we talk. Most people tend to treat conversation like a competitive sport, in which the person who says the most makes the brightest point, persuades others of an opinion, or even speaks the most prolonged and loudest is the winner. But then again in most conversations the person who speaks least benefits most and the person who speaks most benefits least because he learns more. 13. Life is not fair The delusion that life is supposed to be honest is the source of much unhappiness. Global business expert, executive coach and author Ben Spence remarked, if you expect life to be fair to you because you are fair, you are fooling yourself. That's like expecting the lion not to eat you because you didn't eat him. Some people are born into better families, others grow in orphanage homes. The sins of some people are forgiven while some others pay for crimes they did not commit. The bottom life about life is that life isn't fair, but you still have to deal with it. Wining about it rarely levels the playing field, but learning to rise above it is the ultimate reward. Knowledge is not power when it is not applied. Many times we get the best advice but we fail to take them in and this is the cause of many of the troubles we encounter.