empowerment & inspiration ... all for you
june 24, 2016 

inspiration station
ask directly for what you want

As I was working the Italian Festival a few weeks ago in Little Italy, a woman approached my organization's souvenir and promotion booth and commented on the oven mitts. She picked one up, said that she had bought one at the last festival, and that it had split open and burned her finger during use. She showed me the slight repercussion of the finger burn and mentioned she should have brought it along to show me. She went on and on with the topic, and even though I knew where she was going with it, she never directly said it.

I should have played dumb and let her wiggle around a little more (wait, is that mean?) to see if she would indeed have asked for a new oven mitt. Nah, instead I handed her a complimentary one.
Why didn't she just ask directly for a new mitt? I really do not know. It was clear what she was after when she visited the booth.

We do this, too, don't we? Skip around a topic, not communicating directly and clearly what we want. (Men might have something to say on this topic, eh girls!?) It is also called: beat around the bush ... skirt the issue ... hem and haw ... (and yep, in the process, driving our spouses and kids crazy) ... verbal evasion ... and a fancier word for it is circumambages (really).

Omgosh just ASK DIRECTLY already!

I am a vocal Italian (is there another kind?) and so, I have zero difficulty asking people for what I want - in my work, at home, in a store. How else can we get the end result if we do not ask for it? My philosophy is ... the worse someone can say is NO, and then we are no worse off than before, si?

People cannot read our minds - nor should we expect them to - that is merely game playing.

It's really rather simple: ask directly for what you want. 
 
Share your thoughts on this topic?
(I'm asking directly.) ;-D

email Suzanne
(include first name and state, or 'name withheld')
 
snippeteer backtalk 
 
reactions to June 17 snippet:  
"Thank you for sharing. Believe strongly that 'playing' shaped who we are today." 
~ Leslie G in MD 

"I loved reading 'play time.' I think most of our age group got to go out and play and it was good for us. I had severe asthma but I was still outside playing with friends, playing house, army, trucks, in the pool, etc. I mostly stayed in my yard because I had to be nearby in case of asthma attacks; most of my friends had dogs, but they all came over. I had a well stocked yard. Being an only child I was the girl and the boy of the family! 
 Lately, since having a 6-month old puppy, I am learning to play with her because when she wants to play - you better play or she'll sit on your chest 'til you do - and I LOVE it. She is so full of her little doggy life and in that she is bringing me alive again wanting to play. We run around, we throw toys, we play hide and seek. I turn off the computer or the TV and just have some play time with her. It is so much fun and I didn't know what I was missing."
~ Karan A in Middle River, MD

"This is a really good snippet. You know the NFL program Play 60? Well I say, if my mom said I have to go out and play for 60 minutes, I would have cried. What, just 60 minutes? I want to play for hours and hours!!!"
~ Maryanne D in MD

snippets note: NFL PLAY 60 is the National Football League's campaign to encourage kids to be active for 60 minutes a day to help reverse the trend of childhood obesity.
 
bonus snippet

I saw this article and wanted to share with you:

 
good to giggle
 


prayer flares
 
FOR Peter in MD in treatment for blood cancer
 
FOR Rosemarie's healing after surgery

FOR Don in MD in nursing care with dementia and cancer and for his wife Gina

FOR Dinah's family in the loss of Uncle Gene in WV 

suz on wall in italy
in my happy place - 
Sardinia, Italy 2015 

ciao ...
until you snippet again

suzanne molino singleton  
creator of SNIPPETS   

celebrating 10 years

Not yet a snippeteer? Receive inspiration in each FREE issue every Friday in your inbox simply by entering your email address on SNIPPETS website or replying to this email.

snippets links