Good morning, and welcome to Orange You Glad It’s Thursday video series. My name is Patti with Power Word Postcards, and I’m so excited that you are here this morning to share with me on my Orange You Glad It’s Thursday adventures.
So today, I want to talk to you about asking for help or doing it yourself, and I would love to find out what do you prefer. Do you prefer to ask for help or do it yourself? Please share in the comments below, because I really do like the interaction with this email and it inspires me and motivates me to hear your responses as I inspire and motivate and support you.
So I’m channeling my inner kindergarten teacher today, and I want to share with you the story about the little red hen. So the little red hen is an animal that lives on the farm with a duck and a cat and a dog, and she finds some wheat seeds and she wants to plant the wheat. So she goes to the dog and she says, “Will you help me?”
“Not I,” says the dog
And then she goes to the cat, “Will you help me?
“Not I,” says the cat.
And then she calls to the duck, “Will you help me?”
“Not I,” said the duck.
And so the little red hen says, “I’ll do it myself.” And then she waters the seeds and she watches this and she tends to the garden and she needs a little bit of help doing that. So she goes to the dog and says, “Will you help me?”
“Not I,” said the dog.
And she goes to the cat, “Will you help me?”
“Not I,” said the cat.
And she goes to the duck, “Will you please help me?”
“Not I,” said the duck.
So the little red hen says, “I’ll do it myself.” And then she needed to gather the wheat and take it to the mill, but she does need a little help. So she wants again ask the dog, “Will you help me?”
And the dog says, “Not I.”
And the cat says, “Not I.”
And the duck says, “Not I.”
And so then she takes the wheat to the mill all by herself. She brings home the flour and she makes the bread and she asked one more time. “Dog, will you help me?”
“Not I.”
“Cat, will you help me?”
“Not I.”
“Duck, will you help me?”
“Not I.”
So the little red hen does it herself. And at the end of the story, she has a nice, beautiful loaf of bread that she baked from seed. And so she says, “Who will help me eat the bread?”
And the dog perks up as yours and says, “I will.”
And the cat says,” Meow, I will.”
And the duck says, “Quack, quack, quack, I will.”
And the little red hen says, “Nope, I’ll do it myself.”
So I’m sharing you that story because I’m just in an interesting place right now. As an adult, as a mom, as an entrepreneur, as a networker, I often still struggle with the fact to ask for help or to do it myself. And I’ve done it by myself for so long that it’s really, really challenging for me to ask for help. And I know I’ve shared on Orange You Glad It’s Thursday about this little predicament that I’m having before. And fortunately, I have amazing, first of all, I have an amazing husband, Larry, who asks me almost daily or he reminds me almost daily. “Patti, you don’t have to do it by yourself. You don’t have to do it by yourself.” And I really need to hear those words. I don’t have to do it by myself.
I also am involved in networking groups and I was reminded this week by a fellow networker, is the reason that I joined networking groups is to get support and to share ideas and to motivate myself to keep moving forward and keep being the best that I can. So I can do it myself if I choose to, but I really am really working on asking for help.
So my call to action for you is to get your Power Word Postcard Response Journal, and if you haven’t ordered yours yet, I’m going to do a plug. These are actually on sale for the month of September at a reduced price for $9.99. So order yours today so next week you’ll have it available. And if you don’t have your Power Word Postcard Journal yet, I would like for you to grab a piece of paper right now and make two columns in your journal or on your paper.
The first column is, “Things that I like to do by myself,” and make a list of things that you like to do by yourself. And in the second column, say, “Things that I need to ask for help,” and write those things. And look at that and really have some integrity and some personal growth about your two lists. Do you always do things by yourself and you never ask for help or do you ask for help too much and don’t do things by yourself?
Either way, it’s fine. It’s okay to do it by yourself. It’s okay to ask for help. And that’s what I want you to think about this week. So I will see you next week for another episode of Orange You Glad It’s Thursday. Bye.
