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!

My answer to that is no-one! “Needing” implies something is wrong, something needs fixing. I believe everyone deserves a coach. Why? Because there is so much unfulfilled potential in the world that needs unlocking.

I was inspired to write this blog after going to a networking meeting where I met some lovely ladies who were being incredibly helpful in giving me advice as to where I might find my clients. As I reflected on what had happened I realized that they were probably thinking of women who needed coaching. So it started to make me think the whole thing through .. coaching is a fairly new profession but definitely growing in the business world as organizations become aware of the benefits and see it as a good return on investment in increased productivity and associated profits.

So what about return on investment for individuals? What would that look like? A bigger and better life? After all we only have one go so let’s make it a belter and many of us are living in mediocrity rather stuck in the way it is . Working with a life coach is a great way to find out what makes you tick, where your strengths are. It makes you step out of your comfort zone and challenge some of those powerful self limiting beliefs so that you can step into that amazing and magnificent life. Yes I am a coach so of course I would say that wouldn’t I? But my life has been transformed and I have seen it happened to the lives of others as well.

Life is challenging and if you have had difficult experiences such as illness or other life events it can be difficult to get back that focus. Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. But remember you deserve it, you don’t need it!