Advising when you need advising

Sometimes I find myself giving advice when really I need it more than ever. I am the type of person that will typically put myself on the back burner to help those around me, even though my day to day attitude may seem different.

I have a very gruff exterior and only let people see parts of me when I feel that they should, when they should. But most of the time people say that Im a good guy, and fun, loveable, and carefree. There are others that would beg to differ. I find that when giving advice to others, I am subconsciously giving myself the advice and working through my problems at the moment. I pick and chose parts of my life and experiences to help those who have turned to me for help. Typically helping the both of us at the same time. Listening to others helps me as well. It helps me to understand others thought processes and give me additional insight.

Though I must admit that there are those times when people are turning to me when making life choices that I feel almost wrong or guilty for telling them what they should do when in all reality I don’t know what I would do if placed in their situation. But I guess that is what makes listening and advising so great. You provide a service to others when they are in desperate need of help or just needing someone to talk to, and subsequently giving you a sounding board too. Its kind of like therapy for the therapist if you would.