Listen to Your Own Advice
By Moshe Katz
CEO
Israeli Krav International

December 15, 2016, Israel

They say we are all very good at giving advice but not very good at taking advice.

Personally I am happy to take any good advice that comes my way but it has to be really good advice and from a respected source. Random comments by strangers or friends have sometimes had a huge impact on how I lead my life. We must cherish those moments of rebuke/advice and truly try to implement them. It is an ongoing process.

Some will accept advice while others will just get angry.

I had not been in New York for a while and had not realized that under the new mayor, Mayor Guilliani, things began to change. A new culture was emerging. Part of that was with trains and subways; let them off first. As eager as we are to get on the train we must first allow the passengers on the train to get off. It is amazing to see passengers, in such a hurry to get on the train but yet restraining themselves and waiting. We can change, we can learn.

Same on the escalator, stand on the right, walk on the left. This was pointed out to me and I have lived by that. Sadly I find many people here still do not know that and they consistently block others who want to walk by. If you should God forbid tell them of this new norm they burst out in righteous indignation.

Giving good advice in a way that people will accept it is an art. Taking good advice and implementing it in our lives, is a skill. But where it gets really tricky is in taking our own advice, swallowing our own medicine.

Editing my blogs for publication I must admit I am often amazed by the wisdom and life lessons. Reading it is different from writing it. When reading it I say, damn that is good advice, I should really do that. I want to use my own advice but I find that most challenging. It is so much easier to give advice than to take it.

So I read my own advice and I see how it has worked in certain areas of my life and I realize I must implement this advice in other areas of my life as needed. Now that is difficult, that takes will power, discipline and motivation. It is easy to keep doing what we do well but it is difficult to apply those successful habits to other areas of our lives.

I know great scholars who rise early every day to study but yet they cannot control their eating habits. They are frustrated by their weight problems but seem helpless. I see people who are great disciplined athletes but simply can't seem to finish any course of study. They sit down to study but then procrastinate and never accomplish their goals.

We need to take our good habits, our good advice and apply it to all areas of our life. This I admit, is a challenge. But we must get busy living or get busy dying.

Krav Maga Training
You KNOW You should do this

Find an instructor

DVDs from Israel - Step by step easy to follow techniques.

Train IN Israel - Tour and Train Israel Experience

On Line Distance Training - Hundreds of clips each year, all original

The Krav Maga Shop

Please note that all fields followed by an asterisk must be filled in.