Most guides think their job is to have answers. The ones people trust most have learned to sit in the question first.
When someone comes to you for guidance, there's often a quiet pressure to solve something. To offer clarity. To point the way forward. And sometimes that's exactly what's needed — but not always.
The people who remember your guidance years later usually don't remember your advice. They remember how you made them feel. They remember that you listened without rushing to fix them.
Listening is a skill, not a default
It sounds simple, but real listening is hard. It means setting aside your own judgments, your own solutions, and your own need to be helpful. It means being fully present with someone else's pain, confusion, or uncertainty — without trying to move past it.
When you sit in the question first, you give the other person room to explore their own thoughts. Often, the answer they need is already inside them. They just need space to find it.
The invitation to be still
Next time someone comes to you for guidance, try something different. Before you offer advice, ask one more question. Sit with the silence. Let them find their own words.
You might be surprised what emerges when you stop trying to fill the space.