We would like to think we can say yes to everyone and magically have time to finish everything everyone has asked us. “It’s easy to take on everything. To condition ourselves to believe that we have to do it all. But that’s just an excuse,” says Poornima Vijayashanker in her article called How We Hold Ourselves Back When We Think We Have to Do Everything.

“She is right, but why is it so hard to ask someone for help,” I thought. I started checking out more articles written by Vijayashanker on her blog Femgineer and found a post called It’s OK to Ask for Help.

In this article, she explains that sometimes “needing to ask for help seems like a sign of weakness, you feel like you’re burdening someone by taking up their time.” She suggests to make asking for help easier, you shouldn’t “wait till it’s too late.”

When you wait until “the moment after they’re in a dicey situation… making it harder for someone to help, because the helper has to first get you out of the mess you’re in before they can propose a solution for the root cause of the situation. It also creates anxiety for the helper, they fear making the situation worse, before they can make it better.” Of course, someone will be more willing to help if they don’t have to get you out of a mess first.

Remember, people want to help you, but they can’t help you if you don’t ask.

Do you have any suggestions on how to ask a co-worker for help with a project? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Photo Credit – Kathy Weller