I am absolutely terrible at asking for help. Full Stop.
I tend to think I can manage everything on my own and plus to do the job the best.
…I always had difficult times to delegate even back in times when I used to work in marketing for big and small companies. And this has became just worse since I became mum. My first months with Emilia could have been much easier if I mastered this skill earlier.
Thankfully over the past two years I slowly have been learning that asking for help can be such a relieve and it doesn’t mean you failed! In fact asking for help makes you smart and efficient.
In other words not only you can get rid of the tasks you don’t like so that you can have more time to spend time on the things which matters to you but also often you can achieve the desired outcomes much faster.
So for the next two months I asked my friend Jannine to help me to get back to my fitness level I was before the summer.
Now this is a big thing for me because I have fitness and health background.
Trust me once you are in this industry and consider yourself a specialist it is soooooo hard to admit you need a help!
I know this is going to cost some money…but I am happy to restructure my expenses. Sometimes one less t-shirt, less of wasting food and no coffee in expensive cafes can give you that budget for a personal trainer. I also know it would take me ages to convince myself to go back to the gym (not really my thing) and then I would be probably doing my training inefficient way. And that means I would spend more time in the gym and have less time for my actual work (and that cost money too) and plus on the top of that I would be frustrated and possibly postpone some of my other personal and professional plans…
Conclusion: Me and Jann in the gym for the next 2 months at least.
My suggestion to you:
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- Make a list of your duties/ tasks which you really don’t enjoy doing – be honest with your self. Anything from washing dishes, ironing, bath times, lunch boxes to taking your child to nursery or school.
- Think of people or services who you could ask for help. Husband, Family, Nannies, school buses, taking turn with friends to do the school runs.. etc
- If you can’t find the easy solutions think out of the box..
- Firstly pass on the tasks which are easy to delegate.
- If any task means an extra cost don’t take it of your list immediately- see if the actual cost is not an investment and in fact can bring you that missing piece of happiness or make you some money in the future…
