When I was at your age!

We all would’ve heard advices that starts with “When I was at your age” from various people. People usually say this dialog and continue to add how they struggled, how they suffered, how they worked hard, etc. Although most of them are said explicitly, few are not.

From our elders at home

We would have heard this like a slogan from our parents “While we studied our parents did not have enough money to support us for college education”.

We would have also heard “When I was at your age, I had only limited set of clothes to wear” to make us understand the importance and value of money.

Our Grandma would have told us “When I was at your age, we had no gadgets and we enjoyed interacting with family and friends”.

From our workplace

A colleague while doing knowledge transfer behave like “I was provided only limited knowledge on this project when I joined, You figure out the rest”.

We would’ve heard our Manager say “When I was at your age, I followed these principles and disciplines. I am going to make sure you follow them”.

Managers be like “When I was at your level, I only got gradual increase in salary during appraisals, so I am going to do the same”.

Managers say, “In those days, I was at your level, we used to work in Pentium 4 machine. But today, your generation asks for a Macbook”.

Why?

People say when I was at your age advice,

• To inspire people

• To motivate people

• To make people feel grateful

• To help people avoid mistakes

Even though most of the back stories are used to help others, sometimes they push too hard and impose thoughts on other person’s head. Do not make people’s life harder because your life was hard.

Though people give us 100’s of advices, we have the right to decide whether to take it or not.

Even when you are in a place to give advice like that, let the other person decide on their own will. Tell them, that they have the freedom to make the choice.