I have a bit of advice for you.  Stop listening to advice!  To take advice with even a grain of salt is to take it too seriously.  I'm serious!

When I think about all of the advice I've received throughout my life, even from close friends or family members who supposedly care about me and want what's best for me...all I can say is that I'm thankful for all the times I just completely ignored it or did the exact opposite. 

The vast majority of advice is only what people use to explain away the things that they regret about their own lives.  One of the ways that people cope with their own regrets and their own struggles in life is by trying to convince themselves that whatever is wrong with their life was somehow inevitable or unavoidable.   And the easiest way they can convince themselves of this is by  convincing you of the same...that high school is the best time of your life, that you are not talented enough to achieve your wildest dreams, that marriage kills romance and passion, that once you are married you'll end up with a house in the suburbs, or that becoming a parent changes everything.

You know exactly what I'm talking about.  Sometimes advice really stings.  Sometimes (if we are among the lucky few) we actually like the way things are in our lives.  Sometimes we actually like the way we are.  So naturally, we don't want that which is working for us to change.  The advice and cliches of the world around us can create in us so much fear that, instead of moving on with our lives, we choose inaction.  It is this stagnation, mostly born out of fear, which should actually be the greatest fear.

I'm ashamed to say so now, but I guess Sofia and I were, ourselves, victims to a flood of bad advice not so long ago.  For years we put off having our first child because we feared that much of the advice we received from family, friends, and society in general was true.  Today we're here to let you know that it isn't true...when you have children, not everything changes.

Click on the gray box below to listen to this week's podcast (or download it wherever you normally find podcasts).

Abscondo Podcast - 33 - Not Everything Changes