Identify areas in your life where you can find peace in saying “no” when you need to and find meaning in intentionally saying “yes” when you need to.
Recognize specific situations where there is no room to say “yes” when you need to say “no” and “no” when you need to say “yes.” The significance of these specific situations is that it can be hard to figure everything out, especially when making changes in every area of your life. For instance, trying to say “yes” to many changes at once can be hard to do while pacing yourself and taking steps.
So, allow yourself to start small. What’s one thing you can say “yes” to today? What’s one thing you can say “no” to today?
Let’s say you’ve decided to say “yes” to creativity and “no” to the perfectionism that holds you back from being creative. Finding meaning in saying “yes” to creativity might look like allowing yourself to try something new that your 13-year-old self would have liked to create. It has meaning because it’s a part of your story. The peace you find in saying “no” is knowing that what your 13-year-old self needed to create wasn’t about perfection but about honesty and reflecting that version of yourself.
Other ideas could include:
Say “yes” to meaningful conversations and “no” to the pressure of always having the right words.
Say “yes” to learning a new skill and “no” to the hesitation of not being good at it immediately.
Say “yes” to exploring a new opportunity and “no” to worrying about what others think.
Let today be the day you say “yes” where you need to say “yes” and “no” where you need to say “no” and let this be a part of how you grow. – Morgan Harper Nichols
