PP 079: Asking for Help

Asking for help doesn’t show weakness, but rather shows strength in knowing how our energy and time are best spent. In this episode, I share personal and professional examples of how asking for help has benefited me.

Asking for help doesn't show weakness, but rather shows strength in knowing how our energy and time are better spent. @thekimsutton shares personal and professional examples of how asking for help has benefited her. https://www.thekimsutton.com/pp079Click To Tweet

Episode Transcription: Asking for Help

Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity.

Today I’m going to talk about asking for help.

I don’t know if you can relate with me on this, however I remember as a young girl and as a teenager, and even through college and as a young adult, I felt it was a weakness to ask for help whenever I couldn’t quite do something by myself. I would continue trying to push forward, often spending way more time than I should have just because I didn’t want anybody to know that I was unsuccessfully doing something alone.

OK, let me be totally honest. I still struggle with this little bit — even up until last fall, maybe I should even say yesterday.

The most obvious memory from the most recent days is even just asking for help in getting my podcast graphics and editing and all of the activities associated with getting this podcast off the ground and continuing on a daily basis. I was trying to do it alone and was not asking for help.

To say I was struggling would be probably an understatement. If you’ve been listening for a while you may have realized that in December I only released one episode. Now you can go back and listen to one of the previous episodes talking about how the podcast burnt me out.

Asking for Help

The big lesson that I’m trying to share in this episode is asking for help does not make us weak. In fact, it makes us a lot stronger.

Since starting my businesses in 2012, I have gone through a shift in looking at other people who are doing the same type of jobs as I am as competition to looking at them as collaborators, acquaintances, and referral partners. To use one specific example, a classmate that I met when I went through my Infusionsoft™ Certified Partner training is now somebody who I am doing work for, and I know if I had an opportunity for her I would send it back to her as well. I would not hesitate before asking for help.

While we are both Infusionsoft™ Certified Partners, there is no need to compete. However, if one of us sees that we could use help in an expertise that the other one has, we’ll reach out. In the end it works better for us and our clients.

As a mom of five, I am often amused watching my children trying to do things on their own. Every single day, my 3 year old daughter Nevaeh wants to do something like brushing her hair, brushing her teeth, getting dressed, even pouring herself milk out of the gallon container. There are so many of these things that she really has learned to do on her own, but I enjoy watching her celebrating her victories when she accomplishes these feats and warmly embracing her request for help when she does realize that she cant do it on her own.

As parents, as friends, as loved ones, chances are none of us would say “haha I told you so” after watching somebody struggle. If you are a person who would say “haha I told you so” I just want you to think about how that may make the other person feel.

When somebody comes to you asking for help and it’s something that you can easily do, or if the tables are turned and you go to somebody else asking for help, again, its not making you appear weak. In my opinion, asking for help helps position you as an expert in the areas that you are knowledgeable and very capable in. And asking for help doesn’t even need to be limited to business activities.

Thinking about everything that goes around in my house every day, there are a variety of ways that I have asked for help and I’m now getting it. For example, my older children are doing chores, and that helps me. It’s not that I’m incapable of doing the laundry or doing the dishes. It’s that there are better uses of my time and to be quite honest, my children want allowance. So, in a way it is helping us both out.

By letting go of the activities we are not most proficient in, and asking for help with those activities, we are freeing up our space, time and imagination for so many other activities which could be helping us serve our bigger purpose.

The next time you’re struggling with anything, whether it be personal or professional, don’t be afraid to reach out to a friend or colleague or loved one. Asking for help doesn’t make you a small person. It makes you a big one.

On a more personal note, I want to especially stress that if you are struggling emotionally, it’s important to build a network of people who you know you can go to for help when you are struggling. In early to mid 2016, I was struggling with major anxiety and depression but I had a network of people around me, especially a dear friend and my husband who I could confide in and they gave me the advice and the resources that I needed to pull through.

We always need to be actively building our network of support. People who don’t make us feel small when we’re asking for help. People who can support us emotionally, relationship wise, and professionally. But, while we are building this network, we need to make sure that it’s not always one sided. You don’t only want to be going to them asking for help but you want to make sure that they know that they can come to you to ask for help as well.

While I am the host of this podcast, and if we have never chatted before, I want you to know that I am also here for help. You can visit my website at https://www.thekimsutton.com, go to the contact page, and send me a message if you need assistance. I may be the person behind the microphone, but the purpose behind the Positive Productivity is to help you achieve and appreciate personal and professional success.

So, please. if there’s anything that I can help you with, again just visit my website at https://www.thekimsutton.com and don’t be shy asking for help.

With that said, go forth and have a positive and productive day.