Change Your Life | Rock the World

I know this might sound strange coming from me, since I’m always telling everyone to take responsibility for themselves, and get to work, and so on, but there is a difference between that and what I’d like to talk about today.

When I talk about taking responsibility, then I’m trying to convince others that it’s within their power to overcome their problems, and encourage them to do something about it.

But right now, I’m referring to those who insist on doing everything themselves, and as a result, get overworked and stressed out and end up not getting much done in the end. You see, there’s doing it yourself, and then there’s doing too much.

Part of the problem has to do with expecting ourselves to be superstars at everything. And we expect everything we do to be perfect. You may have already read my “Better Than Perfect” ebook, so I apologize for repeating myself here. But the point is, it’s absolutely impossible for everything to be perfect at all times.

Frankly, you’re not going to be a superstar at everything. Some thing’s you will be average at. That’s fine. That’s normal. And that’s when you enlist the help of someone else who is a superstar, or at least very good, to help you. If you’re like a lot of people, then you might think that no one can do it as well as you, or that they won’t do it just the way you want it. But I gotta tell ya, you’ll be surprised by how much more efficient you can be when you get that line of thinking out of your head.

The simple fact is that you can’t do everything yourself. Every now and then you’re going to need some help. Unfortunately, we live in a culture where doing it all yourself, and working excessive hours is respected, and considered something we should all aspire to.

But that belief is at odds with the reality that we see every day. For example, most of us work, or have worked, for a company that has many employees. There’s no way that the boss can do everything (especially some of the bosses I’ve had), so they hire people to handle various jobs for them. And the bigger and more successful the company, the more employees they hire. We see this every day, and yet we still idolize someone who tries to do it all and work ridiculous hours. And that leads to the classic workaholic syndrome, which, like I said, leads to getting less done.

Also, you have to consider that you’re not an expert in everything. You can’t be. So why not ask someone who is an expert to take care of that one task for you. They’ll get it done less time, and probably do it better than you.

I’ll give you an example. A few years ago, we had to call a plumber to fix a leaky pipe in our basement. Now, I could have fixed it myself. I know how to do the work. But we called the plumber anyway. Because he’s an expert, he does this type of work all day every day, he has the right tools for the job, and he’s definitely going to do a much better job than I could have. They were in and out in a few hours. Something that would have taken me days to do. When he was done, I asked him how long the new pipe would last. He said he’d never have to work on it again in his lifetime. To me, that’s money well spent.

Well the same is true when it comes to your personal development.

That’s why I encourage people to seek out a career counselor and an expert to review their resume if they want a new job, or a 12 step program if they have a serious addiction, or a coach if they want to learn a new skill, and so on. There are experts out there who can help you.

And I also try to preach the virtues of outsourcing. In many cases, you can get a lot of jobs done for you, much like the manager in an office. For example, sometimes I help people set up their own websites, which can be intimidating for the unintiated. But I tell them that they don’t need to know how to do any of the technical stuff, because there are many experts out there who can do it for them. And they can do it in much less time, and leave you with one less task to worry about.

So, basically, getting help can relieve stress and get more things done quickly and efficiently. Which means that you progress faster.

Peggy Collins, the author of Help Is Not a Four Letter Word often speaks about what she calls “The Self-Sufficiency Syndrome”, and she once told me, “Most of us were raised believing that it’s a weakness to ask for help.” And she pointed out that, “Self-sufficiency syndrome is stopping us, it is separating us from other people, it is also leading us toward burn out.” Listen to my interview with Peggy here.

And she’s absolutely right, if you ask me. Being able to do things for yourself is extremely valuable, and the key to your success. But taking that to an extreme and insisting on doing it all yourself is going to hurt you in the end.

Related posts:

1. The Key to Getting Things Done
2. Clear Out the Clutter
3. The Top 5 Ways You’re Screwing Your Life Up
4. If You Know it, Teach it
5. One Thing at a Time, My Friend