Tale of the Spineless Pushover

“No is a complete sentence.”

My husband tells me this was his grandmother’s mantra.  Grandma Linnie was very good at saying no, even to her darling grandchildren.

I didn’t have a grandmother to teach me this lesson.  In fact, the lesson I Iearned was quite the opposite.

I learned to say YES to pretty much everything that was asked of me.

As a result, I’ve poured myself into serving our wedding clients and our wedding pro clients, solving their problems, lending inspiration and support that’s so desperately needed.  In that sense, this work ethic has been a tremendous asset.

But over the years I’ve come to realize that for everything you say YES to, you are saying NO to something else.

When we say yes to booking that wedding, we’re saying no to a weekend with the family.  When I say yes to writing that extra article, I’m saying no to putting the finishing touches on my fiction project.

At a certain point, it’s time to take back your power and say NO to the things you don’t really want.

I invite you to join me in some self-reflection as I ask myself these questions:

What am I saying YES to?  Is it feeding me?  

What can I say NO to in order to make more room for the things I love?

If you find yourself automatically leaping to “yes” when something is asked of you, I challenge you to try this experiment.  At least once per day, say NO to something, anything.

Even if it’s as simple as your spouse asking you to grab the newspaper off the front steps, just pause a moment and see what it feels like to say no, or at least to imagine saying no, before automatically doing it.

Empower yourself and empower your life with that powerful complete sentence, “No,” so you can say, “Yes,” to something delightful and unexpected.

When do you say NO?