Asking for help is a learned behavior for me. I can’t pinpoint where in my life I embodied the notion that I had to do everything on my own, but it was my M.O. for most of my life. My older brother even called me “Little Big Woman” from a very young age in recognition of how this showed up in me as a little girl.
I’m grateful to finally have surrendered to the knowing that I can’t do it all myself. Don’t get me wrong, there still are times when I have to take pause and remind myself that some things can be a heck of a lot easier with help. But I no longer consider the need for help to be indicative of inadequacy or weakness on my part.
In fact, it takes great courage to recognize when we could use a hand and to expose the vulnerability that naturally comes with asking for help.
At the beginning of this year, I took one of the biggest step-outs of my life in seeking help. I joined a community of women in a mastermind dedicated to advancing women’s freedom.
Freedom, you might wonder? Aren’t women and men alike free in this great country of ours? Yes, technically we all share the same freedoms and liberties as American citizens regardless of gender, but thanks to societal norms and pressures, women aren’t always able to operate with the degrees of freedom necessary to expand and grow to our full potential.
As a part of this mastermind, I’ve had the tremendous privilege to learn from and grow with a remarkable group of 15 other women led by our coach, Nisha Moodley (that’s our bevy of beauties pictured above, at a retreat in New Mexico). Through the attainment of more freedom in our lives, be it creative freedom, freedom of time or money, or freedom from limitations in our minds, we’ve each experienced tremendous transformation and advanced our goals and dreams.
In circle with my Freedom Mastermind sisters. Freedom Mastermind photos by Lindsay Mae, 2013.
In this sisterhood, I’ve practiced asking for and receiving help, and the benefits have been priceless. My blog is just one example of a dream turned reality because I dared to seek and receive support and encouragement.
Napoleon Hill nailed it when he memorialized the phenomena of the “Master Mind” in Think and Grow Rich (1937), one of the best selling books of all time.
No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.1
Hill contends that when two or more people come together in a harmonious spirit to achieve a specific purpose, the creation of this third mind, the mastermind, lends itself to ideas and possibilities that otherwise would not exist.
I’ve experienced firsthand what one might not be able to envision or accomplish alone is exponentially more possible with the help of another.
We all need someone who can see beyond the tunnels that frame our own vision. Only through this broadened perspective can we break the invisible barriers that hold us back from being all we’re meant to be.
Ask for help. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by what is possible. I promise.
1Hill, Napoleon; Habstritt, Greg (2010). Think and Grow Rich: Entrepreneur Edition. Calgary, Alberta, Canada: SimpleWealth, p. 170.
