Personal Mini-Experiment:  Asking for Help Directions: Read the following activity and answer the three (3) questions.  Getting and

Personal
Mini-Experiment:  Asking for Help

Directions:

Read the
following activity and answer the three (3) questions. 

Getting and Giving Help

This exercise
encourages you to think about how your relationship to others and the broader
community can make a positive difference in your life.  If you are a person who finds it difficult to
ask for the help of another, this exercise offers you a chance to break the
habit. 

Asking for Help

Select some
activity for which you are especially unlikely to ask for help, and the next
time you are in this situation, instead of trying to struggle through it by
yourself, go ahead and ask another person for a hand.  Answer these questions about a recent
situation in which you could have asked for help:

1.     Describe the circumstance, including
all your thoughts and feelings.  What did
you imagine people would say if you asked for help?  What would you have thought about yourself if
you had asked for help?

2.     Did you ask for help?  If not, why not?  If so, how did you overcome your rule, “Don’t
ask for help” or what thoughts led to you the decision to ask?

3.     How did the situation turn out when
you did ask for help?  What were the
reactions of the person you asked for help? 
Did you get the needed help?  If
you did, how did you feel?  Do you think
you could ask for help in a future, similar situation?

Part of
being in a community is being able to call upon the people in that community
for assistance.  Contrary to what you
have been taught about not asking for help, it is not a weakness to ask for
help.  Indeed, it is a strength.  You are human. . . . You do need other people
to get things accomplished.  This is not
a bad thing, but a wonderful reality that is part of being a member of a
community.  As we have suggested in this
exercise, give it a try.  Once people do,
they rarely turn back.