The only way to get what you want is to ask for it
“The only way to get what you want is to ask for it.”
I think this is best explained by giving you an example of when I didn’t speak up.
Over the years my father and I traveled to train shows all over the country. On each trip we always made a point to go to a nice restaurant. The dinner was an important part of each trip.
One year on a trip to California, we took someone else with us. We were trying to decide where to go for dinner, and the third person said, “Let’s just eat in the hotel.” He was tired and going somewhere else to eat was more than he wanted to do.
We ate in the hotel because neither my father nor I spoke up and said, “No, we want to go to a nice restaurant.” During the mediocre meal both of us were miserable and acted poorly.
If we had stood up and said, “No, I want to eat in a nice place,” we would have had a better time. The person with us would have had a better time too, because we would have been more pleasant. Or we would have left him at the hotel and he could have went to bed.
This saying also brings to mind the idea of writing down and communicating our goals with others.
This is important because goals change or get forgotten.
By sharing our goals with others and writing them down, it’s easier for us to meet them. It’s a reminder of where we’re going and what we want to do.
Once I started actually writing down my goals and communicating them with the few trusted people in my life, I started achieving my goals.