#53 ask

I recently learned the hard way that my instinct isn't always right.  I was leading my year-old golden retriever into the vet when a tech came out of the back door, crouched down and called for her.  I was in a fenced-in area; the dog and tech both knew and loved each other; it was a totally happy encounter -- and I should have let go.

But the instinct that kicked in was to hold tighter to the leash.  As a result, the dog went, the leash went, and my shoulder went with it.  Ten weeks of twice or thrice daily exercise and 19 physical therapy appointments later, I'm good to go again, but it has been a painful lesson learned.

My gut was also wrong about the severity of the whole thing.  It didn't seem "that bad" when I did it, so I thought it would heal on its own.  So no ice, no inflammation-reducer, no doctor -- and worse yet, no exercises.  I practically rested it for about a month!  I finally gathered the nerve to talk to a physical therapist friend who instantly saw that I could barely move my shoulder without wincing and sent me off to an orthopedist post haste.

I learned many things from this whole experience (and will share more about what I learned from physical therapy tomorrow), but the most important thing was that I don't need to wait so long to ask for help.  I had many more resources at my disposal than I took advantage of and the end result was more difficult because of it.  

Is there help that you need that you haven't asked for or resources that you could use to make your life/organization better?  My instinct IS right about this one: you'll be better off if you ask!

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com