Welcome to Creativity Cookies, your monthly invitation to creative action!

The BIG IDEA for this month is

My daughter was less than two years old. We were visiting family who were building a house, so I put her in a playpen to keep her away from the construction debris. We played a game passing toys back and forth across the playpen fence, me saying “please” and “thank you” because someone had told me it’s the basis of all human relationships.

Amanda Palmer is reminding me of that truth and daring me to play the game in real life.

Michael Bungay Stanier and Brené Brown featured her TED video (below) recently and it’s easy to understand why: each of us needs help, but it’s hard to ask.

We have all kinds of shame about not being able to do it all ourselves. We have lovely discovery mythologies that promise our work will find its way into the world on its own merits. We are seduced by ideas of pulling our own bootstraps (even though we rarely wear cowboy boots).

What would happen if, instead, we asked for help? (Find out…)

Identify one piece of help you need and ask for it. (Bonus points if it’s about something that matters to you. Super shiny bonus points if you make this a new habit.)

(13:48) Amanda Palmer’s talk on The Art of Asking

 

 

 

Creativity Cookies is published on the 15th of each month.