25 Times People Were Given Advice That They Thought Was A Joke Until They Decided To Try It

Housemate lost her cat, was devastated, put up missing posters. An anonymous person contacted her and told her to go out in the middle of the night, yell the cat’s name, and then be quiet and listen. She found the cat, it was stuck in the neighbor’s shed.

I worked for a courier company and this happened to my boss. He was on a long delivery out in the country. We're from Virginia, but he's currently in Kentucky. We're pretty country ourselves, but not like this. This is pre-smartphone era, so he stops to talk to a local for directions.

Guy said "Go as far as you can see, twice, and there's your turn."

My boss stared with bewilderment at the level of Deliverance that just came out of this guy's mouth. But... he fixed his eyes on a spot as far as he could see. He drove to that spot and made a mental note of the next farthest spot he could see. Upon arriving at the 2nd spot, dead on was the little unmarked turn he was looking for.

We still quote it to this day... "Go as far as you can see, twice..."

If you drop something and can’t find it, drop another and watch where it falls.  

Worked GREAT twice while tiling my bathroom. 

 Didn’t work so good when I dropped a winch handle off the boat 

If you can’t get rid of your sore throat, get a new toothbrush.

Got a fuel pump for a very old S10. Put it in the truck, it did not work. Googled problem, lots of other people having same issue with same fuel pump and no answer.

Some random guy on a S10 forum, that I found on page 3 of google, posted 10 years ago that the instructions were wrong on that fuel pump. You needed connect the red wire to the black one, and not the green one like the instructions said.

Worked instantly

That the 10c per copy xerox machine at my high school (that gave change for dollars in dimes) would accept xeroxed dollar bills in the bill changer. The Secret service gave the school a visit to explain to us how bad a crime counterfeiting was.

Is your dog afraid of the vacuum cleaner? Punish the vacuum in front of the dog. Hit it and tell it how bad it is. Get really mad at it. Put it in its place. I can't believe this actually works, but it does.

My therapist told me to “give myself permission to grieve later” because I was grieving something that hadn’t happened yet. It sounded so obvious when she said it, because she said “you’re going to grieve it later. It hasn’t happened yet. So give yourself permission to grieve later, and to not right now.”

Bizarrely, it worked (for the most part). And I “give myself permission” to do other things later, too (worry, get mad, cry, etc). Somehow the act of consciously telling myself I can do it later makes it not so overwhelming right now.

I read a newspaper article about a guy who went to his local convenience store and bought two lottery tickets. Most people in that situation would play different numbers on each ticket, in order to double their minuscule chance of winning.

Not this guy. He was interviewed, and said he believed that playing the same numbers on *both* tickets would "double down" his chance, showing somehow that he was really serious about wanting those numbers to win.

So that's what he did. But it turned out that he actually did have the winning numbers for that drawing, and he owned two out of the three winning tickets. Therefore he was entitled to walk home with two thirds of the jackpot, instead of just half.

If your cat loses interest in his cat bed or scratching post don’t get rid of it! Just move it to a new location in your house.  The cat will find it and use it again.  

If you accidentally use permanent marker on a white board, draw over it with a whiteboard marker and wipe away immediately.

If you can't find something and you know it's right in front of you somewhere, walk away for a minute or two then come back. You'll find it right away.

It's easy to get tunnel vision when looking for something, especially when you get frustrated. Stepping back to reset your brain does wonders. Then you get kinda mad since whatever you were looking for is sitting right there where you were looking.

When my firstborn was an infant, a friend told me that an old Native woman said that to keep your baby from crying when you lay them in their crib to sleep, you should move your hand in a circle in the air near them, while slowly backing up and widening the circle until you leave the room. It sounded like a bunch of hooey, but my friend swore by it, and danged if it didn't work every time! No idea why, but my kids were all good sleepers. Side note that I certainly always would respond if they woke up and cried, because I wanted them to know that I was there if they needed me, but that didn't happen much either.

When having anxiety or a panic attack, put your hands in cold running water. It helps with causing a sensory ground, you focus on the sensation of the cold water

My 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Thrillkill (her real name), told us that if you want to remember something, repeat it quickly in your mind at least three times or more and you will remember it. I've used this trick successfuly for 50 years.

if you find yourself obsessing about something, set a date and stretch of time to 'worry' about it. I have no idea why, but that was the only thing let me set something down in my mind and sleep one night. It was a piece of advice my mother gave me a few days earlier. ironically, it was something else she'd said to me that was the source of the worry.

I tell people this - sick and congested?

Salsa. Hot salsa. Have some good hot salsa and chips. It cleared my congestion for a few hours, and nothing at the drug store would even touch it. Plus there’s no dosage limit - have as much as you like!

Hot and sour soup also works well.

Any spicy food should work, really.

I have ADHD and seriously struggle with remembering to brush my teeth before bed. 

Someone told me to put my toothpaste in the sink so I would have to physically pick it up and move it out of the way to use the sink. Once toothpaste is in my hand, it'll remind me to actually use it. 

Sure enough, totally works. I usually have to use the bathroom around the time I get ready for bed. 

I got a ganglion cyst on my wrist.  The medical professionals recommended surgery. My mom's wife (a nurse) recommended hitting it with a book. The book worked.

So, someone once swore that talking to plants would make them grow faster. I thought it was a load of horticultural hooey, but in a moment of desperation, I gave it a shot. Lo and behold, my ficus started thriving like it had won the plant lottery! Turns out, my green pals just needed some sweet nothings and motivational speeches.