Overwhelmed? What If You Asked for Help? Part 2

Posted on June 10th, 2009, by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D.

What Happens When You Do Ask for Help (and When You Don’t)?

There are upsides and downsides, depending on your personality, for asking and not asking for help. Here are some possible considerations surrounding asking for help:

When you ask for help you may now owe someone else some help. AND, when you ask for help, it may be that others feel great about it because you have helped them in the past and now they feel that they’ve been able to repay you to an extent.
When you ask for help, you no longer can say, “Well, I handle everything myself; I don’t need anyone else.” AND, when you ask for help you can be relieved that you live in an interdependent world rather than an independent one.
When you ask for help, the other person might say ‘no’ AND you can graciously say, “No problem. Thanks for considering it.”
When you ask for help and the person helps you, there’s the possibility that s/he might not do a very good job (or at least not up to your standards) AND there’s the possibility that s/he will do a fabulous job.
There are many other possibilities…and I want you to notice the word AND in each of the ones above. Try getting rid of the word “but” from your language and replace it with “and.” You’ll be surprised, I think, with some of the results.

Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him. ~Booker T. Washington

And if you know you are overwhelmed – and part of it is because you never ask for (or expect) help, and you would like to learn more so you can be ‘just whelmed,’ then you’re invited to join others (worldwide) who receive Meggin’s weekly emails (free!) at

**I Want to Be Just Whelmed (http://www.JustWhelmed.com)

If you would prefer quick, short weekly tips, then the following site is another place to find suggestions and other tools to support you in your quest for peaceful productivity:

**Top Ten Productivity Tips (http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com)

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!