This is part of a series of posts about how to make your ideas actually happen.

Introduction
Figure out the Steps
Bring Order to Chaos
Ask for Help
Conquer Your Fear
Get It Done

Ask for Help

As I told you last time, help is not a four-letter word. I don’t know where it came from, but so many of us think that asking for help is a bad thing and that we should do everything all by ourselves. That’s a load of crap!

Let me tell you this: You can not save the world all by yourself. It’s a fact. It’s the way it is. So get over it and ask for help. Others (ahem, especially me) want to help you. Don’t think for a minute that you need to make big things happen all on your own. That’s just ridiculous.

I’ll get off that soapbox now.

What do you love? What do you dread?

What on your list of 1 million tasks do you love to do? What looks like fun? Excellent–those will ensure that making your idea happen will be fun!

What on your list of 1 million tasks do you either not know how to do or don’t want to do because it would induce vomiting or something else wildly miserable? Excellent–those are the tasks we are going to talk about now.

Ask for help on tasks you don’t know how to do

For every task you don’t know how to do, mark the index card with a question mark in the corner.

Next, for every task you just marked as something you don’t know how to do, are there any you want to learn how to do? Not what you think you should learn how to do. Which ones do you really, truly want to learn how to do? Put a circle around your question mark on those index cards.

Now you have index cards with no mark, a question mark, or a question mark with a circle around it.

Ask for help on tasks that feel like drudgery

For every task that seems like drudgery and makes you want to run for the hills, mark the corner of the index card with an X.

Hunt for help

As I told you earlier, “Others want to help you.” Not everyone, but there are people that are perfect for you and for what you need and really want to help you.

You have four sets of index cards.
1. Unmarked cards – things you will do yourself.
2. Cards with a question mark – things you don’t know how to do and don’t want to learn how to do
3. Cards with question marks with a circle around them – things you don’t know how to do but want to learn how to do
4. Cards with an X on them – things you don’t want to do because it would seem like drudgery

It’s time to start the hunt for help. Hunting will be relatively easy because you know exactly what you need. You don’t necessarily need to pay someone to help you, though you can and may decide to do that. Friends and colleagues may be able to help you for free or for a trade in services. (What’s better than superheroes helping superheroes?)

State your needs. Ask around. Search the internet. Keep asking. Someone is bound to know someone who can help you. Heck, email me and I may be able to point you in the right direction.

Asking for help is definitely going to help you actually make your idea happen. No one can save the world all by themselves.

Next up: Conquer Your Fear