Your SOS is Your Superpower. Here’s How.

The well known internationally recognised distress call SOS originated as a distinctive morse code sequence (first used 1905/06) to simply and clearly show that help or rescue was required at sea. The letters became acronymed much later to give more meaning to the call (save our souls / save our ships).?

How much easier would it be if a simple radio call was all it took now, no judgement, no embarrassment, no fear of looking a total failure, just plain old SOS?? To this day, it’s still recognised as one of the hardest things to do, given three out of four of us still find it tricky (Onepoll).??

It’s driven by our need to be independent thinkers, we want to be seen to have the capacity to do it all, know it all and be it all.? A sentiment I can get behind, but not at the cost of damaging self-worth, slow progress, poor health, precarious financial planning or just how we feel contentment with our lot.? Because the reality is we’re always going to need help in life, regardless of position, status, hierarchy, qualifications or even experience.??Because doing something new will always require a new set of skills.

So how to make this stubborn trait us humans have more superpower than super stubborn? Well, I can only speak as a professional coach and someone who’s done a lot without asking for help until seeing the SOS light. I know I’ve missed opportunities because I was too scared to ask, I’ve wasted money when I could have avoided it and don’t even get me started on time. Not only do I seek out a wise sage here and there to get curious with,?through all my coaching work, I’ve come to learn that:

1. If you get a patronising response to a question when you’ve asked for help that isn’t actually an answer, it’s often because the person you’ve asked doesn’t know the answer either #awkward.? If they make you feel bad, that’s about them, never you.?
2. Look to the point of recovery, as in, think how much better your day/week/month would be if you found out the answer to the thing that's kept you stuck, so you can progress through it at a better speed than if you sat and suffered in silence.
3. As coaches, we annoyingly say that everyone already has the answers within themselves (which is true by the way) but these are questions about life direction, life plans, limiting beliefs, habit change, wellbeing and success strategies (which need as much guiding as coaching) they aren’t about how to create a household budget, how does compounding interest work, how do I present to the board in a way that engages, how do I run a marathon and actually enjoy it or even how do I get into a downward dog.? Those types of questions surely everyone needs an answer to.?
4. If you’re open to answering any question that comes your way, you’ll feel much happier asking yourself when the time comes.?
5. How you do one thing, you do everything. If you find it hard to ask for help, look where else in life you’re feeling resistance, you just might find the key.

With all things we start to do differently, we have to practise.? So why not start today and practise asking someone something you’ve been stuck on and just see how much better you feel when you know.?