The meeting I did not need to take

Someone offered to help me with a problem last month. They were knowledgeable, generous with their time, and genuinely well meaning.

I did not take the call. I told myself I was busy. The honest reason is that I was afraid the call would tell me something

I did not want to know.

I had been circling the same problem for weeks, and I had a feeling the answer was simpler than what I was doing. A conversation would have confirmed it and made it real, and I preferred the version where I did not know.

I did eventually figure it out, much later and with much more wasted effort. And in every one of those days I could have just asked.

I think a lot of my slowest progress is not a skill problem. It is hiding from information I already suspect.

Do you ever avoid the conversation you know would fix it? And what makes you finally take it?