So, the other day, I had excruciating pains in my teeth. I couldn't chew anything at all. I could only take water and it felt like the world was crashing around me. I told a couple of friends and I sounded resolute that I would visit a dentist the following day. A friend told me, “Dentists are expensive around here,”. I replied him, “So what? Who cares? I'll pay any amount to make this pain go away. What will I be doing with the money if I can buy food that I can't eat?” I asked him.
He was quiet for a second and replied, “what is the point of getting your teeth fixed when you would be left with not enough money to even buy food to chew on.”
I shut him up and told him to mind his business that my priority was easing the pain I was feeling. No more. No less. Food can go to hell for all I care.
Then, later, during one of my quiet moments, I thought about it and felt I probably shouldn't have shut him up just like that. Of course I was in pains quite all right but then he was concerned about my overall well-being. This is where the issue of “Listening to reply and listening to understand comes in”.
I listened to his advice with a a reply for him to take his “seemingly” bullsh*t advice without considering the motive behind it and the element of sensibility. It happens to a lot of us when it comes to getting advice from people (friends and family). We seek advice despite knowing exactly what we want to do and the moment we hear something that deviated from our initial “master-plan”, we disregard the opinions of our adviser thus making it look like they weren't qualified to advise us in the first place.
It should be checked so we don't end up distorting our social circles and losing valuable friends in the process.
PS: I had my teeth fixed and truly, it cost quite some money but it all makes sense now.