Asking for Help

Depending on your personality, asking for help can be one of the hardest things to do, yet might be the one thing holding you back from being who you are at your best. As some of you know, I recently graduated from Arizona State University, and looking back on my time there, the one thing I wish I did more of was meet new people. I wish I would’ve just put my name and face out in the community, and developed more friendships. So… I am in a new place, with new people, and the one thing that I will get out of this next six months to a year is new relationships, and hopefully new friendships.

The reason why I bring up developing friendships as an intention when discussing asking for help is because friends help each other. Before, I would tell myself people would just assume I am using them for their resources or no one had the time to help me out. I also just hate feeling like I am burdening people, and I viewed asking for help as just that, a burden to other people.

My current situation has lent itself towards me needing a little more help than before so I’ve sort of been forced to ask for help, but it’s been difficult. The barrier that is my fear of burdening others is tough to navigate, so I had to trick myself a little. I told myself that all I was going to do was set up meetings with people and tell them a little bit of my story, with no intention of receiving any help. I found that there are indeed a lot of great human beings out there, and there are a lot of great human beings who want to help others out.

I personally feel great joy from helping other people. Whether it’s helping someone with a homework assignment, an issue with a relationship in their life, or moving out of their house, making others smile gives me some of the greatest joy life has to offer. What’s funny is I’ve always subconsciously thought no one else had this ideology, like I wasn’t deserving of help or other people wouldn’t be more than happy to help me, just like I am more than happy to help others. Boy, was I wrong.

Over the last month I’ve found that telling people a little bit about your story with no intention of receiving anything from it has a lot of value. It has lead to a lot of great conversations where I have discovered a lot of overlaps in my story and other people’s, and oh yeah, a lot of help as well.

So I challenge you. I challenge you to set up meetings or start conversations with people who might be able to help you, and your only agenda is to share some of your story and ask a little bit about the other person’s story. You will find that a lot of people genuinely want to help you out, just like you genuinely want to help other people.

You are deserving of help.

With Love,

Luke