Have you ever met someone who seems to not understand the meaning of “no.” They are commonly referred to as the “yes man” (or woman). This may be you. I know this is not me for the most part now. While I was never a yes man, there was a time when I would say yes to more things. When I was in college, I was part of 5 different clubs and activities while being a full time student, working part time and being involved in church. It was exciting for me to see how many activities I could handle and see how many things I could be busy with. While it was a great time to get a lot of experience and more of an understanding of how the world works, I have shifted over the last several years to being much more selective about how to spend my time.
It is important to say no to things that are not beneficial. Of course, this is easier said than done. If you are a “yesaholic”, then there are a few things you can do to help yourself.
For one, whenever someone asks you to do something, don’t quickly jump up and say yes (unless you know it’s something that you really want to do and would love to do). Step back and think about it and tell the person asking that you would need some time to think about it and get back to them. Of course, get back to them quickly because you don’t want to have 10 people to get back to and then you will end up missing one.
Another thing that could help you is to be aware of the fact that whenever you say yes to something, you are saying no to something else. Think of it this way and you will realize that you will always say no to something. Since that is the case, it is now important to determine if you are saying no to the right things. Sometimes it’s more important to say no to things that are good but not great. The better you determine what is great rather than just good in your life, the better off you are.
There is more power to saying no than you would think since you really can’t get away from it. In reality, it's saying "yes" wisely. You want to say "yes" to the things that are most important and "no" to the things that aren't.