How to Get Someone to Ask for Directions

Опубликовал Admin
29-09-2016, 21:00
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Sometimes, people can be resistant to asking for directions. While a little subtle messaging and some ego-stroking might work, you'll still have to be prepared for resistance because for some it is considered ego damaging to ask for help with navigation.

Steps

  1. Realize that a significant number of men and women feel they are never lost. If you try to dissuade him or her from this belief, you'll usually get nowhere. Try to accept that in his mind, he is still getting wherever it is you're supposed to go and that he has a strong faith in his ability to finally get there.
  2. Appeal to his thrifty side. As you drive around and around in circles or you haven't arrived at the motel early enough to get the cheaper room, you're perfectly in your rights to point out the costs involved in this need to be so right. Point out that stopping for directions saves gas, money, hassles and even means less pollution. Indeed, it is estimated that driving lost costs $3,000.00 in a lifetime. That's money that could go toward a vacation of a lifetime instead.
  3. Remind him that getting to the location or event means more time enjoying the experience instead of spending time stuck in a car or wandering around in circles. Time cannot be replaced and tempers that flare are hard to restore, so getting directions can save both time and tension. If he insists that time is not being wasted, inform him that over a quarter of men polled about asking for directions wait at least half an hour before finally admitting that they need to do so while around 75% of men stop and ask before that. So if he's in that 25% minority that's a half hour less beer drinking at the party. Men love a bit of melodrama and will love you just that little bit more for it!
  4. Let him know what happened when Stephen Meek refused to ask for directions. Hired to lead the first wagon train along the Oregon Trail in 1845, this frontiersman's unfamiliarity with the area and persistence in pretending he knew where he was going caused the loss of over 20 lives. While the man who isn't taking directions in your life probably won't be the cause of anything so drastic, you can remind him that his unwillingness to accommodate your desire for him to ask for directions is metaphorically "killing you" and this escalation of the melodrama may well have him feeling like doing just that!
  5. Tell him just how sexy he is to you when he asks for directions. If you have no moral problem with this kind of manipulation why not give it a try? He probably won't fall for this white lie but hey, if he's stupid enough you never know what might work! Wax lyrical about how sexy you find a man who has enough courage to own up to when he just doesn't know where he's going. Tell how much it means to you to know he's the type who can reset his course by listening to others. Good luck with that, but if he does fall for it - sorry, respond to it - then you can add that to your arsenal of man manipulation, and you never know when that might come in handy!
    • Bear in mind that many a man sees asking for directions as akin to saying "I am a moron". Moron and sexy just don't get uttered in the same sentence.
  6. Give him some not-so-subtle signals about how long this is all taking without mentioning that he's lost. Start looking tired. Yawn and shuffle around saying you're just going to nap a bit. Make a big deal of trying to get comfortable. A few minutes later, say something like "Well, that didn't work, too bumpy" and get out a book or your iPod or something else to fiddle with. Then suggest you play travel games, "like on those really long car trips we had as kids" or sing songs to "make the time pass". Ask him if he's hungry because the last meal was "such a long time ago" and offer him a snack. Or simply start munching something yourself, stating "OMG! I am sooo hungry!" Men respond remarkably well to passive aggressive games like this and he'll love you more than ever for it!
  7. Ask yourself. If he won't, you'll need to. Be prepared, put aside the passive aggressive sighs and just ask. Sure, you're salvaging his pride but you're also facilitating a faster arrival at where you'd rather be.
    • If you're in a vehicle and he won't stop to let you ask for directions, start complaining loudly about a need to pee, right now! There is a good reason for locating conveniences in gas stations where maps and locals ready with directions are easily found. And if you're really clever, stay in the bathroom for a while. Long enough for him to get out, ask for directions and get back in thinking you haven't noticed a thing. You could even - shock horror - ask for those directions yourself! Better still pee in the car - nothing like a wet stain on the car seat to get him to stop that car pronto!
  8. Avoid having to get him to ask by having a map ready. If you don't already have GPS or Sat Nav in the car or on your person, have good maps at hand. If he can't see well, get maps that are very easy to read in large print. And be prepared in advance - check the map out yourself and start looking for the roads, signs, landmarks and other markers signaling where you're supposed to be headed and alert him to these places very early on, whether you're driving, walking, hiking or boating. This is a radical notion known as pulling your weight, contributing in a positive way and working together as a team. Quite a foreign notion to many women, but it really works, perhaps better than any other suggestion on this page!
    • If you hate reading maps, hold it upside down very obviously. His need to show you how a map is read will cause him to find the way. How subtle you are, and let's face it - he's a man - he'll be far too thick to realize you're manipulating him!
  9. Take charge. You drive or lead the way instead. That way, when you refuse to stop and ask for directions yourself, he can use all the tactics in this article on you. You will now have the burden of getting there on time on your shoulders while he sits back complaining about how hungry he is and suggesting that you could maybe stop and ask someone for the way there yourself!
  10. Travel separately. Provided you take the time to study the map and manage to get someone to give you good directions that you can follow if you do get lost then you should get there on time, and he can get there all the happier for having travelled without you nagging him the whole way there. An all round win win situation!

Tips

  • Try to accept that most men do have an innate sense of direction. The reason they don't ask directions isn't all social, even when he's hopelessly lost it's only that he isn't aware that the path his brain tells him is the best one happens to be a dead end. Men and women navigate differently. He's likely to glance at the sun, orient himself as to the direction of the destination and approximate it as well as possible given the roads.
  • Be understanding. Apparently tens of thousands have been spent on studies to prove that men don't ask for directions because stopping to ask anything would have caused the cave dwelling ancestor to have been eaten by a saber toothed tiger. And he won't laugh when you tell him this; he'll tell you that carjacking is the modern day equivalent of the saber tooth tiger of yore. Or, it could just be that males of many species tend to roam over wider distances than females and need an innate sense of where they're going so as not to appear vulnerable and to be able to get home at all costs. Whatever the real reason, bet your bottom dollar he'll find a scientific study to prove the point.
  • Get a GPS. End of getting lost, wrong turns, not finding where you are going, arguments, etc. It will pay for itself in gasoline saved.

Warnings

  • Naturally, you may find this all a gross over-generalization. You're very lucky. You're spending time with a man who does ask for directions. Don't ever, ever let him out of your sight. Or you might actually be spending time with a man who knows where he's going and doesn't need to ask for directions, not that we could ever acknowledge that!

Things You'll Need

  • Map, atlas, GPS/Sat Nav
  • Excuse to stop to ask for directions
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