3 of the most humbling words one could utter.

Humbling; let’s look at that word again, it reads ‘humbling’, not ‘humiliating’. There’s a definite difference between them, which we misconstrue sometimes with regards to this topic, much to my chagrin, I humanly admit. But let’s first look at the word ‘help’.

What is help, & why is it sometimes deemed as a weakness when we reach out & ask for help? There are some generic definitions online, & they all kinda point in the same direction; to make things a bit easier or even possible for someone else to do, an appeal for assistance etc. Well with all that being absolutely true, I wish to direct your attention toward something that may have been overlooked here. Ultimately when we’re asking for assistance it basically means that we’re already in the process of doing whatever we were doing & we’ve now reached the point where we need a hand to get to the next phase, place or level. 

A lot can be said about the CEO who employs an assistant. These incredible humans birth new ideas ON THEIR OWN & they are brave enough to venture into the unknown to start their own organizations or businesses. They run significant enterprises which make our daily lives just a little bit easier, yet they need & request the help of someone else to do so. So, they hire HELP! Many would revere this man or woman as a BOSS, a HERO, “GETTING THINGS DONE”. But it seems we often fail to employ that same thinking to ourselves when we’re in need. It almost seems to be frowned upon when we reach out for help. Yet at the base of it all, WE ARE OUR OWN CEOs. CEOs who should feel free to employ the services of an assistant in whichever area of our lives & not feel ashamed, embarrassed or weak. If we truly understood the magnitude of our existence, we would really perceive things through a completely different lens. Anyway, I found this to be a misconception for most of my life too. This limiting belief led me to burn out & self-destructive eventualities. I’ve learnt that my pride, & this warped idea of being this glorified super-woman, wasn’t making me hero, in fact it made me weaker. I was spreading myself so thin, eventually every task that I took on, was so paper thin, it could be held up to the light & seen right through. It was that lightweight, that transparent, laced with unnecessary mistakes. I was making blunders everywhere & those were just my practical, daily tasks.

Perhaps we should attempt adopting a different perspective of the CEO then, maybe he/she is weak or unfit to run a company encompassing such expansive, painstaking tasks all by him/herself, maybe they are seeking attention coz COME’ON we’re all super humans right, maybe he/she should stop nagging, just multi-task & get on with life. 

Let’s be clear. Asking for help is brave, it shows humility, it shows that you are open to collaboration & feedback. It puts you in a position to learn & grow. It catapults you into a new stratosphere of thinking, which you may have unknowingly been closed off to before. It moves you forward. Instead of remaining stubborn & immutable, listening to your own expert advice, help short circuits your quest for those solutions you seek. You’d be more effective & efficient. You wouldn’t be wasting precious time & resources which you know could be channeled elsewhere. Choosing to remain stubborn keeps you stuck & frustrated. Your pride, distrust, & fear will keep reinforcing the warped narrative that you can do it all by yourself, that you don’t need anyone else & you’ll believe these stories. BURN-OUT is looming. Pause! Is this really helping you? Is doing everything by yourself doing more harm than good. Be honest here! Take a look at your life. How has being an island propelled you forward? Change cannot happen unless things change, until you take a leap of faith.  Asking for help, shows that you ultimately understand the ebb & flow of giving & receiving, IOW the rhythm of life. You are privy to one of life’s high-priced secrets; we were not made for isolation, but rather to co-exist in relation with one another. It shows emotional maturity.

Asking for help, tells you more about yourself than you know.