What is it that you need? Chances are, you’re in need of something. Some of us are in hot pursuit of a career boost, a mate, or maybe even more time to do the things that we love. In an effort to get those things, you might seek out some help, which often comes in the form of getting others and other resources involved.

But, WAIT!

Before you seek the consult and advice of others, use what you already have to get what you need. Think about it. When is the last time that you glanced over at the mountain of books that you’ve collected and considered revisiting some of that information to advance your career or relationships? When is the last time that you accessed those e-books and pod casts that you reserved to listen to later and never got around to? When is the last time that you looked back through all of those articles that you bookmarked while browsing the internet thinking, how great they would be to read once you made the time to do so?

Well, now is the time! Take out those collections of self-help, career and dating resources and get to working!

Now, you might be thinking, Scarlet, what in the world does this have to do with etiquette? Well, think about some of the top things that you do when you need something. You generally:

• Ask for advice (get other people involved)
• Start searching online (spending more time and maybe additional money)
• Do nothing and complain (which is ultimately never productive)

All three of those things can be huge bad etiquette traps, that can be easily avoided. Recently, we released a video on How to ask for advice, and while there is certainly protocol on how to best ask for advice, wouldn’t it be more reasonable if you could answer your own questions with the information that you already own and avoid getting others involved unnecessarily? Just a few weeks ago, we shared a post on How much time we waste online daily. I’m sure that we could all use a little more time in our lives to do the things that we really want to do and we might be able to do so if we occasionally revisited our collection of personal resources. Lastly, think about someone in your life who never seeks to identify solutions and opts for complaining instead.  Sure things go bad and unexpected in our lives, but our individual abilities to seek out solutions and consider the brighter side of things is what positively enhances our lives and the lives of those around us.

In pursuit of our goals, dreams and aspirations, we’ll surely need help in order to succeed. But, if you’ve taken the time to amass a collection of books, videos, articles, quotes and magazines, be sure to use those things to your advantage, and then when necessary, seek the appropriate consult of others and other resources.