Everybody has opinions. Not every opinion is advice. Not every advice is good advice. Why would you take relationship advice from someone who’s been divorced three times? Or financial advice from someone who owes money to loan sharks? In this day and age of social media and clout-chasing, advice comes in all forms and shapes. It can be difficult to find good, honest advice from a reputable source.

Me? I’m great at giving advice. People literally pay me to give them advice. It’s something I’ve studied, trained for, and have over a decade of experience doing. And when it comes to my own self, I have to seek outside help for my own problems. I’ve also learned not to give advice unless it’s asked for. The worst advice, I’ve found, are ones that are unsolicited. The “hey, you know what worked for me?” people are the worse. Unless you’re me, living my life, with my problems and access to my solutions, your advice is worthless. So please keep it to yourself.

I work in a field where the main answer is: it depends. So when people ask for me for my advice, that’s what I tell them, “It depends.” It depends on who you are, where you are in life, and what you’re willing and capable of doing. And since nobody has the same lived experience, my job is to customize the answer to fit the narrative that I’ve been given.

As a consequence, I understand how difficult it can be to find good advice. As such, I don’t use social media – why would I want or care about what some stranger on the internet has to say? From internet trolls to website bots, advice behind a screen is unverifiable, and as such, worthless. So take my advice: only take advice from people who know what they’re talking about. Then use your brain and actually decide for yourself.