I Could Ask _________ For __________.

How could you fill in these blanks?

And if you had 6 minutes to do so, what else would you come up with?

What if you expanded even more? Asked even more?

This is a practice from the book Unbound by Kasia Urbaniak, where she invites women to step into their power through asking.

Last week, I used this exercise with 2 different book circles. We weren't reading Unbound,  but another book with an entire chapter on communicating with power.

I mentioned to the group that if they truly wanted to play big, then uncomfortable requests would most likely be part of the journey.

Yesterday, as part of a group led by Marai Kiele, it was my turn to be on the receiving end of this exercise, which she led differently than I did last week.

What's interesting about the exercise, is that there is no further invitation to make the request.

We wrote our asks for 6 minutes individually, then we shared some of them with a partner out loud, focusing on how it felt in our hearts and our bodies.

No push to make any requests after our call.
No formal commitment of what, when or to whom.

Simple awareness.

Yet, that awareness was all that I needed to take action.

Looking at my list gave rise to all the small moments that I have hesitated or avoided asking for something that I wanted.

Some were personal.
Some were professional.

As soon as we closed the call, I was off and running.

Oh, what a feeling it gave me!
​
Thank you, Marai, for hosting us so beautifully yesterday.

Originally posted on LinkedIn with comments.

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