Asking for help is a theme that has been around for me as well as some of my clients recently and so I thought I’d write about it. It is something that most of us struggle with until we’re desperate. Why I wonder? Because we don’t want to seem weak or failing? I well remember when I was clearly suffering from extreme stress being reluctant to ask for help but the relief I felt when a friend suggested I went to the doctors because maybe my symptoms were menopausal was immense. I think it was a ploy on her part but it worked because it gave me the permission to seek the help I desperately needed! Somehow it seemed I wasn’t admitting defeat!

In the workshop I co-facilitate with Elaine Hanzak (ww.hanzak.com) she talks about what helps when someone is suffering from post-natal depression or any other mental or physical illness for that matter. Asking for help, she says, is one of the key things that can make a difference. In fact it may help alleviate symptoms. Another coach colleague who is undertaking the Coaches Training Institute leadership programme at present was set “asking for help” as homework and has been doing the same with her clients. But both acknowledge the barriers we take great pains to put up to show that we’re coping, that we’re fine!

So all of this has made me think about where I ask for help in my own life? The answer was I don’t, I have been trying to do it all. And I can’t! We end up with lack of focus, being ineffective, overwhelmed and guess what the stress symptoms return! We need to learn that there are things we are good at and others that we are less good at and if we are going to be successful in our lives we need to ask for help with what we are less good at. So that’s what I’m doing! I am creating a team of people that will help me get what I want for my business and what I want for my life. And stop me from getting overwhelmed with all the roles I try and take on.

We all need different kinds of help in our lives at different times. We shouldn’t be afraid or ashamed to ask for it whatever it be. So my challenge to anyone reading this blog is to go and ask for some help today. The other thing, of course, is that people generally want to help. I wonder what would happen in the world today if everyone was helpoing each other! It would be amazing! And of course that help may include asking for help from a life coach, help to grow or refocus or take control of your life. A hard task to do alone!