Ask for What You Want

January 21st, 2024 (9 months ago) • 2 minutes

Asking for what you want is an underrated skill. If you do it correctly, you move leaps forward in life and career. If you don't, you might end up sounding arrogant and burning bridges.

My first really valuable lesson came when I am approaching my 1 on 1s with my manager. He told me that I should always come prepared with a list of things that I want to talk about and most importantly, what I want from him. This will help him to plan out a structure for me to achieve them and act as a mentor to guide me. I ultimately made up a list and shared with him, and it ended up being a great conversation about potential opportunities and people he can set me up with.

Realize that opportunities are always there, and you have to be brave and bold to ask for them. You can use this to challenge yourself and grow because you know your limitation the best. To get what you want in life you have to ask.

I think people are generally more reserve in sharing their ambitious goals and dreams. They are afraid to ask for what they want because they are afraid of coming off as entitled or facing rejections.

My mindset this year is to be more open and just go on conversation with people to see what happens. I internalize rejections as something that will definitely happen but the upside is definitely worth it.