We all have times in life when we seek out advice. Too often though, I see people looking in the wrong direction for it.

There are 3 ways you can look: Up, Horizontally, or Down. I'll explain.

Looking down means to look to people whom you've already passed by in some way. For example, if you used to earn $1/hour and now you earn $5, but you still seek and take advice from your friends stuck at $1. This makes no sense. And it will eventually pull you back down to $1.

Looking horizontally means to look at people who are at the exact level you're at. So if you're earning $5, you get advice on a $10 opportunity from your $5 peers. This is a good strategy only if your aim is to say exactly where you are in life. Most people, if you ask them, would say they're trying to get better. The actions of the horizontal looker say otherwise.

Looking up means you look to people who are better than you for advice. Usually they'll tell you something you either didn't know or haven't yet applied, both of which, if heeded, will make you better. This is what people who are really striving to improve do. The challenge with looking up is that the advice you receive, to hear it and especially to act on it, will make you anywhere from mildly to extremely uncomfortable. This is the moment of truth: The weak advice-seeker at this point defers to looking horizontally or down because it's easier. And this moment of decision seals your fate.

Whomever you take advice from; you're asking to become more like that person. Looking down asks the universe to make you worse (easy to do, but not immediately apparent to you until it's too late). Looking horizontally asks the universe to keep you where you are (a slow and comfortable death that happens right before your eyes without you even noticing). Looking up asks the universe to make you better (doable but not easy and not comfortable -- which is why most people won't do it).

Which direction were you looking the last time you received advice? What did you do with it? What are you asking the universe with that decision?

Your choices will choose you.