I'd booked an earwax removal appointment for today (grim I know, but there you go), which involved taking a train journey.
On looking up the times on trainline I noticed the train I needed to get me to my destination 20 minutes or so before my appointment was to be replaced by a bus.
This meant a usual 45 minute journey* replaced by an hour and 50 minutes - that's the problem with rural driving - each of the 6 or so stations along the route involves a significant detour, hence the massive difference in time compared to the straight-ish trainline.
(*I had other stuff to do in the area, not just a long journey for the sake of it!.)
So I was left with a choice.... either get an earlier train and then 1.5 hours in a coffee shop waiting for my appointment, or drive, with all the attendant hassle of parking at the other end (it's a nightmare over there!), neither of which I fancied.
I hummed and hawed for about 20 minutes (while pottering) then it suddenly occurred to me: phone the damn company and just ASK if I can come in half an hour later - that train being a regular 40 minute train.
And lo and behold, they said 'fine, come in 30 minutes later'.
Problem solved, normal service resumed.
I had something of a revelation about this.... I am extremely reticent to ask people for help, for even the most minor things.
Another recent example concerns my trying to gain access to a certain bank account which required a card reader with no batteries (there were no alternatives to the card reader!)
I couldn't find said batteries in the cheap shops, and Tesco's were £8.00 (£8.00 fucking WTF!) - obviously Amazon would have been cheaper but I'd simply forgotten to tag the batteries onto a couple of recent orders and I was just determined not to pay postage.
Then it occurred to me - just fucking ask someone at the co-working space to bring in a card reader that I can use - it's a small task someone will come through!
NB in the end I managed to get a card reader working by jiggling batteries around, now I have an app installed on the phone which doesn't require the reader, so problem solved, but the 'help' solution is logged in my head for the future!
Typical - just my intuitive use of the word 'pushing' there in the title shows what I think about asking for help, maybe I need a mind set change, but anyway whatever I've got TWO things I can think of immediately that I need help with...
Firstly selling my Euro shrapnel, may as well ask, it is holiday season after all, and if I offer 10 off I'm sure someone will snap up my Euro coins - is this asking for help though? Maybe not...
Something a bit bigger is thinking about doing a van conversion... As it stands I'd have to do the work on the street, lacking a garden or any parking as I do, but I do have a friend that lives relatively close with lots of space, maybe I should just ask them to do the work there, and they've done a van conversion themselves, and they're more than happy for me to go stay a while, so I might put that idea out there...
Yup I need a mindset change, try to think of more things I need help with as life move forwards and then just plain ask!
