Don’t ask people to sign up for your email list, and you’ll never have any subscribers. Build an app that doesn’t ask people for money, and it won’t earn any. Do freelance work without invoicing your clients (and remembering to following up), and you won’t get paid.

It’s easy to keep your goals, and requests of other people, to yourself—but that doesn’t get you anywhere. All you’ll do is end up grumpy when your outer reality doesn’t match up to your inner vision of how things could be. What’s hard is to move past your shame of asking for the things you want. Sure, people might say no, but that’s the price of playing to win.

If you have an end goal or result in mind, at some point you’re going to have to ask for that in unambiguous terms. You won’t always get what you want—at least not on the first try. By asking though, you at least make yourself eligible.

What are you putting off asking for?

(While I have your attention, I’m going to take my own medicine and invite you to do something for me, if you’re feeling generous. Find something I’ve created that resonates with you, and share it with someone else who might enjoy it too. It could be one of my other blog posts, the Remote Jobseeker’s Handbook that’s coming out soon, a photo of mine, or something else.)