The Power Of No

A colleague reminded me the other day that I should say ‘no’ more often. I’m kind of known for being busy and keeping it that way. At my age that complicates life more than a bit. I don’t get around so well these days, but writing, texting, Zooming and what not keep me involved without worrying about the mobility thing.

The calendar, however, gets chaotic at times. Managing my time has been a problem but I normally found a way to squeeze in another appointment or two.

The pandemic helped me out quite a bit. I learned to finally manage blocks of time. I made afternoons and evenings untouchable. Rarely would I accept an appointment then unless a colleague was requesting a meeting with a client together. Slowly people are learning that I don’t do afternoons and evenings.

The why is simple: I rise at 5 am nearly every morning. To do that I go to bed by 9 pm, sometimes earlier. Simply put, I am not much good for anyone in the afternoon and certainly not during the evening.

I remember evenings being chock full of commitments; no more.

To provide more flexibility to colleagues and clients, I opened Saturday and Sunday appointment times, but only in the morning. That has worked, especially for clients trying to make arrangements with groups of their colleagues to meet with me.

The result is a calendar that works for me.

OK, having said all of that, I still have the power to say yes or no to any request. The truth of the matter is ‘yes’ is my favored answer because of one simple factor: I learn more about others, myself and subject matter by staying involved. That means saying yes to most requests.

I learned long ago that saying ‘no’ to more involvement kept me out of the loop and ignorant of trendlines in many topics. Involvement became my lifeline to knowing about the world and our capabilities to handle that world.

Bottom line, no is an answer, but yes opens many unexpected doors to the future.

August 18, 2022

 

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