A Secret Benefit to Asking for Help

Mark Twain said,” There are two kinds of people in the world. One kind separates people into two kinds of people and the other kind doesn’t.”

I’m the kind who separates people into two kinds of people, and in this case there are people who ask for help when they have a problem and there are people who don’t.

I don’t know all the reasons why there are people who don’t ask for help, but it could be that they feel like they should be self-sufficient, like they should be able to figure out everything on their own, or maybe they think it’s a sign of weakness to ask for help.

Recently, a friend of mine who’s super successful and very self-sufficient, found herself in a situation where she thought she should ask for help, even though she normally doesn’t. And what was interesting is after she called one person and got some feedback, and that person suggested she called a second person, that in between those two calls she figured out the solution.

It occurred to me as she described this that when you do reach out to somebody else for help, you’re also putting yourself in the mindset of being receptive to new ideas or new solutions.

And, interestingly, those new solutions may not necessarily come from the other person, but simply being in that mindset may cause your own mind to find the solutions within you.

So, if you are one of those people who doesn’t reach out very often for help from others, consider that there’s something about asking that may cause a shift in your mindset. And that shift is super helpful beyond the feedback or questions or mentorship or advice you would get from someone else.

It’s good to know that being in that mindset, all by itself, has powerful benefits for overcoming problems and finding solutions.