Take your own advice!

So many times I have found myself offering advice to friends and family ... usually unsolicited.  But the other day I was recanting in my head a conversation with my brother and realized I was being a hypocrite.

On a recent phone conversation with my brother I was providing him with some great tips on how to eat healthier and get more exercise.  He is not the type to open up too much, so I am quite sure that he hadn't asked me for any help.  Being someone who loves him very much though I felt compelled to shower him with my wisdom!

I mean I really love my brother and I want him to live a long healthy life which is why I was recanting the conversation.  All the time wondering "was he listening?", "what could I have said differently that would have resounded in his mind and motivated him to take action?"

Then I realized, I've been trying to get in shape and lose 20 pounds ... FOR FIVE YEARS!   Why am I preaching to my brother, I need to be preaching to the mirror!  Who am I to offer advice?  I barely passed my annual physical and get winded walking up the stairs to the third floor at my office!

I often listen to a recorded lecture by Jim Rohn and remember him saying "some of you are asking 'Mr. Rohn, how is this stuff working for you?' ... well ... listen to me very closely, but don't watch to carefully!"  Mr. Rohn was a great "preacher" of a philosophy on how to live a successful life.  And even Mr. Rohn was having trouble following all of his own advice.

Unsolicited advice is usually hard to hear and even harder to follow!  How many doctors, nurses and fireman do you know that smoke ... don't they know better?  Aren't they always telling people not to smoke? How many police officers and legal gun owners are injured by their own weapons or fireworks each year due to their own lack of judgement or missteps?  Hmm?

Well the good news for my brother is that I will try not to offer him any unsolicited advice anymore (emphasis on "try") and I will start to heed my own advice.  Those twenty pounds are coming off by Christmas 2015!