Sometimes in life, we are presented with situations that we want to say no to, but are tempted to say yes to anyway.
Sometimes, it’s because we feel a lot of external or social pressure to say yes.
Sometimes, we’re afraid of letting people down.
Sometimes, struggling to say no is more about us than it is about the people on the other side of the request or question.
For example, saying no to a work opportunity that you don’t really have time for could be difficult if you’re driven to succeed and hate to watch opportunities walk out the door.
However, it’s also important to understand that there’s an art to saying no and sticking with it in your life.
It’s also important to understand that saying ‘no’ is sometimes the best thing to do.
And to understand why this is important, we’re going to talk about time as a resource.
Time Is Your Most Valuable Resource
Every day, we all wake up with the same amount of time.
And every day, we get to choose how we spend it.
Time is the great equalizer.
It is the currency of life experience and the door through which we move our lives forward.
No matter how productive we are, or how efficient we become, we’re always battling the limitations of time.
And when it comes to learning how to say no, it’s important to look at the function that no serves in regards to your limited resource of time.
Saying ‘No’ Keeps You On Track
If you’re like most people, you have goals that you want to achieve.
Maybe you want to make a certain amount of money, have a certain type of family, or succeed at a certain thing.
This is good.
Goals are very good for us—and pursuing them is important.
However, it’s also true that as we move through life, there will be countless distractions that will fall into our path.
Some of these distractions look like distractions, but some of them are actually disguised as opportunities.
Here’s the thing.
There’s only one best pathway forward toward your goals.
And the function of saying ‘no’ in our life is very simple.
If we say ‘no’ to any other pathways that will lead us off of the best pathway carrying us forward, then we can save ourselves a lot of time, effort, and wasted energy—and make our climb to success that much more efficient.
See, saying no isn’t necessarily always about letting people down or walking away from an opportunity.
Sometimes, you have to say ‘no’ to protect yourself from getting pulled off course.
And sometimes this is difficult—because the things you have to say ‘no’ to might also be good things.
They just may not be the things that you want for yourself.
Therefore, learning to say no, and to stand by it, and to understand the nuts and bolts of why you’re saying it in the context of your journey forward, is important—for many reasons.
Not Only Is This Important For Your Success, But It’s Also Important For Your Health And Wellness.
If you start saying ‘yes’ to things that pull you in a million different directions, you’re going to end up overwhelmed, stressed out, and distracted.
And that’s definitely not good for anyone.
For best results, only say ‘yes’ to the things that are going to carry you forward towards your goals in the most expedient and efficient manner possible.
And if you’re going to say ‘yes’ to any distractions along the way, make sure that you intentionally choose to spend time on those distractions because doing so would be better for you than turning them away.
But for everything else, the age-old wisdom stands.
Let your no be no. Stick with it, and set your eyes toward the horizon.
Keep walking, and keep moving.
You only have so much time and so much bandwidth.
You deserve to say ‘no’ to the things that will keep you from what you actually want in life.