30 Misleading Pieces Of Advice About Love, Happiness, And Success That Will Lead You In The Wrong Direction 

30 Misleading Pieces Of Advice About Love, Happiness, And Success That Will Lead You In The Wrong Direction 

Be careful, because these pieces of advice mentioned on Ask Reddit can be misleading.

1. “Never give up!”

Like sometimes it’s okay and even better for you to give up. If you are so hyper focused on trying to make one thing happen, you’ll completely miss the opportunities around you. Also 100% sometimes you should just give up on a relationship, not all of them are worth saving.

2.If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen.”

Sometimes you have to go out there and make sure it happens.

3. “Wait 5-15 minutes before replying to a text or else you’ll seem desperate.”

I freaking hate it when people do this. You leave me on read, then answer 15 minutes later? You’re not desperate if you do this, you’re just much easier to talk to.

4. “Money can’t buy happiness.”

While true, it is misleading, because money can greatly contribute to providing security and things that tend to make people happy.

5. “Just think, it could be worse. Someone has it worse off than you.”

This can be an incredibly destructive thing to say to someone. Just because someone else might have a broken leg, it doesn’t make your broken toe hurt any less.

6. “Flattery will get you nowhere.”

It actually helps you get most places to kiss ass.

7. “Blood is thicker than water.”

The thing about family is, you didn’t chose them, but your friends? They were your choice.

8. “If you can’t love yourself, you’re unable to love anyone else.”

A lot of people who struggle with mental health issues (or just regular people going through shit) have issues loving themselves, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not able to feel love for others or even love people romantically. Loving yourself and loving other people is so incredibly different.

9. “Follow your heart.”

Turns out my heart isn’t the most logical part of me.

10. “Never go to bed angry.”

This well intentioned advice can lead to relationship problems. Many times it is better to sleep, relax, and awaken with more level-headed emotions. Polite honest dialog leads to the best relationships.

11. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

The cover is supposed to tell you what’s in the book. If you choose to dress a certain way, that’s your advertisement to the world.

12. “If he’s mean to you, it means he likes you.”

No, it means he abuses women.

13. “Love conquers all.”

No it doesn’t… And actually it’s a dangerous idea, one that alongside many other shitty clichés about relationships have been creating problems to generations of people.

14. “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

No… Karen needs to hear how much of a bitch she is to everyone. Things need to change Karen!

15. “Try your best and you will succeed.”

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you just won’t succeed. It’ll give you the best chance, but no guarantee.

16. “Honesty is the best policy.”

This is bad advice. I think it doesn’t prepare you for the price of telling the truth (as you perceive it). Also, what if you have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about? There are a lot of ways it could go wrong.

17. “Always trust your gut.”

Okay obviously this works out in some situations but then take someone with anxiety whose intuition is telling them all the wrong things but they’ve always heard this saying so whatever their “gut” (anxiety) is telling them must be true.

18. “Work smarter, not harder.”

It doesn’t mean don’t work hard. It means it doesn’t matter how smart you are if you don’t work hard.

19. “Be yourself.”

Sorry, you can’t always be yourself. Especially if it entails being loud, obnoxious, self-centered, etc. We live in a society and your freedom of being yourself ends where it interferes with other people’s freedom.

20. “Don’t cry.”

Let people express their feelings and cry if that’s what they need.

21. “It’s all about attitude.”

No, not everyone can keep it good always no matter what. I think it’s actually healthier to accept the bad feelings so you can go through them and eventually feel better.

22. “Do what makes you happy.”

While inspiring, people can often take this as an excuse to slack, instead of working hard to eventually achieve something that makes them happy.

23. “You have nothing to lose.”

Oftentimes your self-respect, dignity, and pride are what you actually have to lose.

24. “Don’t let anyone tell you what you can or can’t do.”

People think this means that they can shut down any potentially-helpful criticism if it isn’t what they want to hear.

25. “Time heals all wounds.”

Rather depends on how you spend it.

26. “Ignore them and they’ll stop.”

I mean there are circumstances when this works but 99% of the time, it doesn’t. Especially when the “them” is a bully or abuser.

27. “If you follow your dreams, they will come true.”

Bullshit. You not only have to work your ass off to achieve that dream, you also need to work to support yourself UNTIL you achieve said dream. Plus, you need the talent, connections, know-how, and temperament to be whatever it is you want to be.

Following your dreams is fine, just make sure you’re working toward them, too, or else you’re just following them to watch someone else live them.

28. “Just ignore it.”

Naw dude all that pent up negative emotions will manifest as depression.

29. “Live each day like it’s your last.”

The things I would do knowing that it was my last day would make waking up the next day rough.

30. “Good things come to those who wait.”

Nope. Go out there and make it happen. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

January Nelson is a writer, editor, and dreamer. She writes about astrology, games, love, relationships, and entertainment. January graduated with an English and Literature degree from Columbia University.