Ask questions first, panic later?

Whenever someone is asking me a question, my default mental response to it is “what will I need to fix now?”. I’ve been asked so often to fix everything around or find solutions for this or that, now, it is what I believe everyone is after whenever they talk to me. That’s not necessarily the case all the time though.

The other day, I was asked about movies and all of a sudden I thought I had to drop everything I was doing at the moment to start working on this new project when in fact, the person was only asking about where she could get the information she needed. But for a solid 5 minutes, I was wondering how to respond and not overpromise again while at the same time, not disappointing by not helping. All this meaningless mind blabber could’ve been skipped if I just decided to ask first instead of assuming I had anything else to do other than give a piece of advice.

The more I look at it, the more I see this as a form of paranoia: I fear they’re out to get me, kind of. I have to stop thinking that whenever someone asks me something that it means I “need” to do something about it. That’s really the bottom line. Again, it’s easier said than done but at least being aware of it helps me a little.

Another people-pleaser issue,
Another thing to look into,
Another side of me to change
For more sanity in exchange.

What do you think? Let’s talk!