A stroke of genius by Marie in the office the other day as I was asked (electronically) to have a conversation with someone about something that I really didn't want to do.
Marie's response to this was "No is a complete sentence"
Think about that for a minute.
We often do not give ourselves the permission to say what we actually want to say for fear of upsetting or insulting someone else. In the moment we are unable to say "no" we say "yes" instead and hurt ourselves, or worse our family and the people we love by taking on commitments or wasting time we would have spent with them helping someone else who in fact is less important.
This might sound harsh but time is a finite resource.
An emotional workload takes its toll on even the best of us.
The man who says "yes" and who does not develop the ability to (at least politely) say "no" more often than "yes" will burn and break.
Yet again tonight I have politely declined the opportunity to go and speak for someone I don't know in a place I don't really even know on a subject I have already spoken about that I don't really want to speak about again.
I still found it insanely difficult to send the email to say "Thank you so much for your kind invitation but my schedule is full and i'll have to decline. Good luck with what you're doing"
The fact that I still find that immensely difficult means I have not quite got to the end of the line and have not quite developed the confidence in myself that I would like. I am working on it and considering it all the time.
Perhaps it's a little bit harsh to say "No" but to say "No thanks" that's a skill that we all have to develop and be better at.
Blog Post Number: 998
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