Self-Improvement: Reaching out — #ILLUMINATION

How to Improve Your Stories: Ask for Help

Is your pride or fear of embarrassment getting in the way?

What do you do when you need help?

Do you ask for it, or do you hope that someone will extend a helping hand?

Yesterday, I wrote a story for which I couldn’t think up a good title, hard as I may try.

So I copied the link to the draft and sent it to four friends for suggestions.

I got a few suggestions along with editorial help on rewriting a few sentences for better clarity.

Then I got a note from Holly Jahangiri, “First, you need to edit it,” she commented, pointing out a potentially fatal conflict in the storyline.

Dangit, that’s not what I had asked for, but she was right. It took a significant rewrite, at least from my perspective, but I have a better story now, and it is apparent from the response it has generated.

Also, Truenorth, who is a close personal friend, pointed out some things that were not directly related to the writing but impacted my personal growth.

Self-Improvement is an ongoing journey, and now and then, you’ll face situations that will require some help.

Are you too proud to ask for help? Are you afraid that asking for help will make you look weak or incompetent? Listen to your inner voice.

Sometimes it will lead you to the right resources, and other times, it will prompt you to reach out and ask for help.

Usually, I am good at coming up with titles for my stories. They may not be the best from an SEO standpoint, but I am learning. Maybe the reason I couldn’t think of the title yesterday was that my intuition knew the conflict in the story and wanted to draw my attention to it.

Asking for help brought me more benefits than I was looking for.

My Three Takeaways

1 Trust your intuition; it’s never wrong. Your intuition is the best friend you have. It knows more than you’ll ever know.

2 Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help. Your friends and colleagues are happy to help you. By not asking for help, you deny them potential happiness.

3The Universe is looking out for your success. Everything you’ll ever need is already here. The only way to get what you want is to ask for it.

Day twenty-two of the 30-day challenge. My theme: Self-Improvement.

As always, thank you for reading. Here are more stories for your reading pleasure.

Rasheed Hooda regularly writes on #ILLUMINATION, a writers’ community on Medium, where we support each other.

He is a self-proclaimed weirdo living a Freedom Lifestyle and writing about related topics — Travel, Personal Growth, and entrepreneurship. (Join the Tribe)

“You can let others tell you what it means to be successful, or you can decide it for yourself.”