Ask for help

Hey there . . . .
Yesterday I accepted a new job. It really isn't all that new. I've been trying to GET this job for the last 2-1/2 years. There's an old saying, "Be careful what you ask for . . . . you may get it." So now it is time to step up to the plate. My big chance.

I'm realizing now that since I will have other people reporting to me, there's a likelihood that they won't like some of my decisions. They don't even have to be poor decisions, just that if it isn't what THEY would have done, I will hear about it. I guess I don't have to win any popularity contest, and since I know that up front, I think it will somehow go better.

I know I will have supportive people I can go to if things get difficult. I've been teaching people for years that it's OK to ask for help. But we all know the classroom answer. Anyone can ask you: "so, what do you do when you don't know what to do?" And your answer: "Ask for help." Sure - but how many of us DO that? Check with just about anyone who gets their tail in a wringer, and you will find that they probably didn't ask anyone for help. Or they asked the wrong sources.

I once had a group of kids climbing a rock wall. One of the girls got stuck near the top and was finding it difficult to proceed. The "supportive" crew of friends on the ground was giving her all kinds of advice - none of which was working. They sounded like a bunch of baby birds who begin chirping wildly when the parent arrives with food. If you have ever rock-climbed and would have heard some of the suggestions she was getting you would have been rolling on the ground. But she tried them all. I was (as her belayer) observing quietly while she struggled. When she wore herself out and just sat in her harness dangling I asked her if maybe she was getting some bad advice from her friends. And it wasn't that they didn't mean well. They really wanted her to make it. Some of them had even just been there. Still, the things they were saying to be helpful weren't so helpful. After she got a hint or two from someone who had seen HUNDREDS climb the wall and work through that spot, she scampered onto the top. Never mind that after she spent all her energy she was forced to rest.

Yes - a new job provides new opportunities for success and/or failure. "Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest." Exodus 34:21 NIV
Maybe asking for help is a little like resting. It is taking a departure from the idea that you can and should do it all. But it also matters WHO you ask.