Ah, life advice! It’s that wonderful thing that we just looove handing out (but hate listening to). Among all the pleasures in life, handing out life advice to a friend or even a complete stranger on the internet has got to rank among the top 100, for sure. And there’s hardly anything better than giving someone advice that we ourselves should be following but aren’t, am I right, dear Pandas?

For instance, I know so much about eating healthily, it’s ridiculous. Do I practice what I preach? Heck no! However, this list is about surprisingly good advice. Advice that’s useful. Timely. Concise. And, frankly, just spot-on. Internet users started sharing all these golden nuggets of wisdom after LA-based TV writer Amanda Deibert created a viral Twitter thread.

Scroll down and upvote the advice you think is the best and be sure to share some of your own pearls of wisdom in the comment section below. But beware: even though these tips are useful, far from every bit of advice is good for us, as we’re about to find out.

More info: Twitter | AmandaDeibert.com

Image credits: amandadeibert

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‘Inc.’ points out that successful entrepreneurs “know the value of listening to advice from others,” however, they suggest having a “buyer must beware” type of mentality. In other words, you can’t switch off your mind and follow someone blindly: you might end up in the middle of the woods with no road in sight.

For instance, ‘Inc.’ suggests keeping a keen eye on the context in which the advice was given: are you at a boardroom or a bar? Also, keep in mind that far from everyone is out to help you. They might give you bad advice to slow you down or send you spiraling in the wrong direction. (Yup, corporate life can be brutal.)

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Furthermore, you really should be wary of unsolicited advice. Always ask yourself: what is this person’s motivation? What do they gain from me following their advice? Is there any substance to it? Is it self-serving? Do they simply like hearing themselves talk? When you really start digging deep, you’ll find that there are few diamonds in the rough among the lumps of coal. But the gems you find—they’re priceless when polished with practice and proper application.

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The thing about advice is that there’s no panacea, no single cure-all tidbit of wisdom that’s going to apply to everyone equally. Some relationship advice is going to be fantastic for somebody going through a break-up but not for someone in the middle of a marriage crisis.

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Similarly, specific dieting advice might work for a small handful of pro-athletes, but it might be barely effective for someone looking to lose weight. It’s all about weighing in and evaluating each bit of advice separately. What works for someone else might not work for you and vice versa.

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However, we can over-think things and we might get analysis paralysis if we only think about which advice is good for us without actually testing some of it out. At least some experimentation is necessary for us to determine what tips and tricks work for us and which ones are best left for someone else.

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The problem is that most of us have an opinion about most things. And it can be… difficult to see the difference between somebody’s opinion masquerading as advice and actual advice that the person has applied in their lives and found success. So asking a few follow-up questions is always a plus. Best-case scenario? You go in-depth and fill that noggin of yours with even more useful knowledge than you thought was available. Worst-case scenario? You find out that the person hasn’t been following their own advice and is only speaking on a theoretical level.

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Speaking of which, isn’t it amazing how bad some of us can be in following our advice? We know what works. We’ve seen it work. We’ve doled out the advice to others and watched it work miracles, but we still won’t cut back on our sugar intake/go for nature walks/try meditating every day. Sometimes, it all comes down to just doing it because our minds can (and will) find every excuse known to humankind just to keep you in your comfort zone.