Finding Balance Between Yes and No
Yes.
Getting any kind of momentum towards success usually starts with saying yes. Yes to getting out of bed before the sun, to the job interview, or putting our shoes on for the run or gi on for the class. Saying yes and committing is a crucial phase that the lazy and fearful can’t get past. We sit in our excuses and “wait” for the right opportunity that never comes. The initial yes moments hurt in the realization of the things we’re implicitly saying no to, like staying comfortably in bed or comfortably in our own head, sparing embarrassment or being sore. It’s understandable to choose comfort over growth, but this leads to stifled growth and regret. If we’re stuck here, we should get help, take the advice, look inward, risk it and pull the trigger. We should be building the habit of saying yes to push forward.
Yes is a commitment of time and energy, opportunity and task switching.
No.
No leaves other opportunities open. No is an answer, and a complete sentence.. Use caution. If successful people say yes and very successful people say no, it’s ultimately that wisest that find the yeses and no’s even before the opportunities are presented. All of us are saying yes too much or no too much, or both. Constant questioning is helpful.
What are we saying no to just because it’s “easier” to in the moment? What are we saying yes to that is closing other doors for us?
To Find That Balance
We need to work on our prefiltering macro objectives so we aren’t missing valuable opportunities when they present themselves, and to also stop spending our most valuable commodities, time and energy on the valueless. We should meditate on what our most highest order life objectives are and rehearse them, pre-plan and pre-choose beforehand. People we associate with and activities we pursue, who we help and who we just enable, commitments and disregard. When we don’t, these decisions, big ones that flip a life, and the small ones that add up to big change, will be made FOR for us by others, and by the systems in place to exploit our complacency.
