A lot of the advice I give sounds good to me. It sounds clever and I notice too often I find it pleasurable to be witty instead of right.
But a lot of advice that sounds good is not helpful. Recently, I used a chess analogy to give advice to a friend that doesn’t play chess. No matter how much I explain (which ruins the point of an analogy), it just won’t make sense.
Giving good advice is difficult. It requires you to step outside of yourself. That’s especially hard considering a person comes to you for advice when they want to see your point of view. It’s hard to use your brain and someone else’s eyes at the same time. You have see things their way and yet act how you would act.
It takes more work to be genuinely helpful, but if you care about the other person it’s worth it.