The power of asking a question: 3 examples
Here are three oh so recent examples of the power of asking a question:
1. My son asked if he could stay up an extra 7 minutes to finish building a Lego assemblage.
Isn’t that clever? Ask for something bite-size and reasonable. And ask for it in a way that makes you think. He didn’t ask for 10 minutes . . . he asked for 7.
Even though I was inclined to say no, the unusual specificity of the request made me reconsider. That, plus he told me exactly what he was going to do in those 7 minutes. He was going to put the head, arms and legs on a character.
Well, in that case . . .
I made a deal — 7 minutes only if he agreed to immediately brush his teeth and hop in bed afterward. We made the deal and he (mostly) stuck to it.
Without the deal he would have had to have quit a little earlier, and I would have had a malingering child drawing out his pre-bed activities.
We both won.
2. Our 19-year old nephew is living with us till next fall when he goes back to college. He wanted a job on a nearby golf course, so he could hone his fledgling golf game over the summer.
After a couple calls that went nowhere, he biked over and introduced himself — and asked for a job in person.
He landed a job that day. Turns out someone else was leaving within the week.
Coincidence, you think? Synchronicities always flow in the direction of those who ask.
3. Recently I asked for an art transport job I’d heard about through a friend — I asked several times in several ways. Please. Pretty please. It’s a big job starting in Colorado, taking me to Wisconsin and then back to Florida.
It would pay for a trip already in the works to Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.
I got it. Now I can enjoy my trip knowing it’s paid for. How cool is that, to return artwork in person the gallery would have had to pay to ship.
I’m getting paid to art scout thriving art towns like Austin, Texas and Santa Fe, New Mexico and Taos, New Mexico, and Aspen, Colorado — meeting artists in their studios along the way.
When in doubt, ask. When you want something, ask.
The best askers I know are congenial. They ask thoughtfully. They try out different ways of asking. There’s an almost light-hearted quality in their asking. They ask playfully.
I’m amazed how much I’ll do if asked. It’s the same for others. We all want to help when we can.
You might like these posts about asking too:
Celebrating: You get what you ask for sooooo right away sometimes
Your mind ultimately answers every question you ask it
For you —
Evan Griffith
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What creators do
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