Time and time again, I’ve seen our government leaders here in Dominica rely on expert advice and then come to realize that the advice doesn’t work for them. Then they beat themselves up that they must be incompetent because “it should work.” Nearly every week I meet at least one person telling me such a story, which often ends with a line like. “Am I just too stupid/ I just can’t get things to work/ everything (or everybody) is against me.

Don’t do this to yourself. Often advice doesn’t work because it’s bad advice. We’re all different. What works for one person or even a group of people doesn’t always translate well to every individual.

Often when I mention an idea in this blog, for some people it will work great, but for others it will go nowhere. If something that works for certain people don’t work for you, don’t assume you’re broken. Assume that from your standpoint, maybe it’s just lousy advice.

Don’t worry so much about what the so-called “experts say”. Chances are many years from now their advice will probably be proven wrong anyway. Study yourself as an individual, and use expert advice only as a general guide for new experiments of your own. Observe what works for you and what doesn’t. Trust your senses. If the experts say one thing, but your personal experience suggests the opposite, put more faith in your own experience. That will take you much farther down the road of self development… certainly a lot farther than beating yourself up.

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