Well I’m continuing my series on reducing or stopping the stress in your life. Today, I’m talking about saying, NO. I remember an old movie back in the 70′s called “Silent Movie“. It was made in 1976 by Mel Brooks. It was a silent movie except there was one spoken word in the whole movie by of all people Marcel Marceau. He said “NO!”.
I’m saying this because for some reason we are almost conditioned to always say yes, OK, or ya. After all, you want to go along to get along. You don’t want to appear inferior, do you. So when someone asks you if you can do something, the obvious response is typically, OK. You can always find a way to squeeze it into your schedule somehow, right? Well you may be a superman or superwomen but squeezing too many things into your schedule becomes downright stressful.
You need to learn to say NO. You need to simply say you don’t have the capacity to take on an extra chore. You need to prioritize each of the things you are asked to do, sometimes self imposed as well, and ask yourself if there are more important things to do. So when declining an offer you need to make sure you are firm. If necessary, let the person making the request know that you can’t fit it into your schedule. If you start to feel guilty, offer to do something else or to take on the task later in the week once your week is a little less hectic.
It is plain and simple. Do what’s important for you. Remember, some of the small items you do have, See “Git Er Done – Stopping Stress Your Life“, you should knock off right away. Then by not committing to things that directly benefit you, things should start being less stressful. Tomorrow, I’ll talk about number 3, exercising.
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