Sophie Hainsworth

This week I plan to read “Yes Man” by Danny Wallace www.dannywallace.com. and I do have to give him a plug here because I really liked the guys sense of humour when I saw him on TV for the first time this morning (not that he needs a plug I am sure).  OK so excuse me for being really behind, and sorry if most people have heard of him AND read the book, but remember that living on a small island (aka Bermuda) for the past two years is likely to have encouraged ignorance about many things going on on this larger island we call the British Isles ( do correct me if that’s not PC enough anymore). 

The point I want to make is that this idea of saying yes to everything sounds great.  I gather that saying yes to absolutely EVERYTHING may have caused some problems, and I will have to read the book to find out exactly what happened.  However I do think it’s a concept we can sensibly instill into our own lives, or we could commit to making sure we instill it into 80% of our lives.

I actually think that saying no is habit building.  Saying no to things actually breeds saying no to more things, and it’s infectious.  Someone calls us up and asks if we want to do something and we automatically say no because we are so used to it, then what happens is we say no so often that people even stop asking us if we want to do things.  So alot of starting to say yes to things is about breaking a habit, and it’s also about getting out of that comfort zone.  Doing something different to get different results.

Imagine the opportunities it could open up in your life if you got out of that comfort zone, broke the routine and said yes more.  I don’t care if you go swimming every Friday after work without fail, you could still say yes to that offer of happy hour in the bar next door, your life is not going to end just because you don’t get your lengths in. 

Or if someone asks you if you if you want to go to a concert on a school night!  Or if someone asks you to start up a blog with them.  You may end up trying loads of different things and you may discover you have a hidden talent you never knew about.  Alot of saying no to things can be about fear, but facing that fear will help you grow and realise that the doing is never as bad a the fearing.  So start by ignoring the excuses in your head, and saying yes to trying that camping weekend (OK bad example, how about that glass of wine on a Sunday night in town?).

This week, see if you can commit to saying yes 80% of the time and observe what happens in your life.