Help with general life questions – Top 3 sources
Life can be stressful. The daily grind of finding a work/life balance can be difficult for anyone. Having someone to talk to and ask general life questions is important for our mental health. No one knows how to do everything or handle every situation that arises.
Friends and family are usually where people turn to first for life questions, but what if you don’t have family or they are unable to help? Another source that people turn to after family is church, or your church pastor. As the decline in church attendance continues, this is becoming less of an option for many Americans. So, where can people turn? Below we’ve listed three options that have become popular for those seeking to ask general life questions. These three resources are popular because they are effective. They can help you get answers to your questions quickly.
Top three sources for seeking answers to general life questions
Certified Life Coach
If you’re concerned about the future or achieving a goal, there is no better place to turn than a certified life coach and mentor. Life coaches specialize in helping people through goal setting and reaching a desired future state. They use tools and techniques that lead to your self-actualization. Life coaches don’t tell you what to do but rather help you determine your path forward. Life coaches are known for being good listeners and thrive on helping others. Using tools like SMART goal setting, your Life Coach will guide you through exercises that empower you to reach your goals.
Therapist
If you’re unhappy with your job, your status in life, or things that have happened to you in the past, a good therapist is a great option for asking general life questions. Therapists are trained and licensed professionals who know how to help people with their mental and social health. People often think that going to a therapist is a long, drawn-out process. While this can be true, new options from online resources like Talkspace now allow you to meet with a therapist directly from home.
Reddit groups and Quora
The first two options listed above, Life Coaches and Therapists, require a certain amount of time, scheduling, and money to utilize. What if you don’t have the time or money to utilize these services? You can turn to several websites for free and find a surprising amount of help. Sites like Reddit and Quora allow you to ask life questions and get answers from people all around the world. There are several benefits as well as some disadvantages to using these services.
Advantages:
- Free – Social media sites like these are free. You can ask as many general life questions as you’d like and never pay money.
- Fast – Asking questions online provides you with answers fast. With millions of active users, asking a question on Reddit or Quora will generally get you answers within minutes.
- Easy – It only takes a few minutes to set up a social media account and start asking questions.
Disadvantages:
- Questionable advice – Ever heard the expression “you get what you pay for.”? When you ask a question online you have no idea who is answering that question. Just because someone claims to be an expert on something, doesn’t make it true. The anonymity of the internet makes it almost impossible to determine who the person is. The advice they give could be well-intentioned, but still bad advice.
- Trolls – When you ask a question publicly, you are opening yourself up to ridicule. There are a lot of people on the internet who love to spread fear and hate. Blocking these people out can be difficult, and the answers they give can be depressing. If you decide to ask questions on the internet, mentally prepare yourself first.
BONUS: Specialists – Like a financial planner
Most life questions aren’t general but quite specific. For example, you might consider a question like “How can I start preparing for retirement?” to be a general question. In reality, there are finance experts who can answer that question. Financial planners, both in-person and online, can guide someone in creating a retirement account and learning how to invest their funds for the future.
When you come up with a general life question, ask yourself if it’s truly “general” or if there is an expert somewhere who might be able to help. A quick online search may guide you to a professional who can assist you in.
