Helping too much?

How much do we help and when?  A number of things recently have come up at work and at home that has me looking at this.  Sometimes there is a very fine line between helping someone and helping someone too much,  so how do we find that balance.

Helping someone too much does not allow that person to grow.  It does not give them the opportunity to make mistakes that they need to make.  It does not let them make choices for themselves and live through the consequences.  So why are we tempted to help someone too much?  For me, its because I don't want someone to get so discouraged that they quit.  I don't want to see them hurting, I don't want to see them fail.  But does this really help?  The hardest thing as a manager, a friend, and as a parent is sitting back and letting them scrape their knees, letting them fall down but then being there to give them a hand back up.  I have to constantly work at taking that step back, knowing it is for their own good but it is so very difficult.

I am very thankful that these incidents have come up recently because it has made me reflect on being the teacher and the student.  Nothing helps clarify things when you are able to put yourself in both roles.  How do I become a better student so I am not putting someone in the spot where they are helping me too much?  When do I ask for help and when do I take the risk and be okay if I fall down.  When I am in the teacher role, does someone really need my help or just the confirmation that I will be there to support their decision?  Am I supplying the correct type of help?  Do I need to find someone else to assist?

Will I stop helping others?  Absolutely not!  I need to look at each situation, each moment, to try to determine if my actions are truly helping.  There are many ways to help each other, we just need to find the right one.

See you on the mats!