Do you need to help people find ways to help themselves? Here are 5 Tips to Help People Help Themselves

 

5 Tips to Help People Help Themselves

No matter who you are, you know someone – or have known someone – who struggles to help themselves. Regardless of their position in life, they always seem to take the wrong path, or they ignore the benefits of the trickier road in favor of easier but less fruitful options. It can be frustrating, and you may feel like you cannot help them. Perhaps you can’t, at least not directly, but you can help them help themselves. 

Listen to Them 

Most of the time, people want you to listen to them. They don’t need you to offer solutions; they want to feel heard. If your partner is struggling with problems in their life, you may feel compelled to find the answer, but they don’t want the answer. As much as you want to help them overcome the problem, it may be better to just listen, at least initially. 

Offer Options 

While you can’t give them the answers or force them to do anything they don’t want to do (especially if they are an adult), you can still offer options. Once they have exhausted their venting and frustrations, you can provide different ideas for them to improve their situation. Those struggling with addiction can look into attending a rehab center, while kids struggling in school may find that changing their classroom environment and sitting away from friends could be the answer they have been searching for. 

Let Them Learn From Their Mistakes 

It’s difficult to watch your loved ones make the same mistakes repeatedly, but there’s only so much you can do to stop them from engaging in this endless cycle. Eventually, you must let them learn from their mistakes. It could take something significant to see the light. Once they do, they can start on their road to recovery.

Give Them Empowering Tools 

If your loved ones are struggling to improve their health and well-being, you can be there in the background to give them empowering tools. While this won’t solve their problems overnight, it can help them reach conclusions that will benefit them and help them change their situation. These tools can open their eyes and might give them a unique view that can change everything. There may be some resistance, though, so having evidence that these empowering tools can work could be necessary. 

Guide Them to Solutions

You cannot give people answers and see the results you want, but you can guide them to the solutions that can benefit them. This guidance encourages perspective and can make them look at the bigger picture. It may need to be extreme in some circumstances, but it could be the only option. So, whether your friends are having issues or your family is not as understanding as they should be, you can guide them towards something that could benefit them but only if they have the impetus to take the next step by themself. 

Helping Hand 

While you can’t always help those you want to help, you can still encourage them to make better decisions. Whether it’s your kids struggling to stay focused at school or your partner giving up too soon, you can help them transform their view and hopefully start choosing the right path more often.