Achieving success isn’t a secret. There are common themes when you look closely and one of them is SAYING NO.
One thing that all successful people know is how important it is to say no. Time and energy are precious resources and if you are going to be successful then you need to ensure that they are being used wisely.
How many times have you done something you didn’t want to do, just because you felt you ‘should’ do it? You met that ‘friend’ who wanted to meet for dinner or you created the presentation for a colleague who asked you to? From the moment you was asked you wanted to say no, but you didn’t.
So often women say YES to requests when really they want to say no, because deep down they want to be liked. They might think ‘I don’t have the time’ or ‘This really isn’t my responsibility’ but they do it anyway because they want to be seen as nice, kind, helpful, caring, supportive. Does this sound familiar?
The thing is that this behaviour is detrimental to your success. Why? Because when you say yes to something you don’t want to do, you use are using your precious resources for someone else.
Now, I am not saying to be mean for the sake of it. If you have the capacity to help someone then fine, but if you saying yes to someone else, means putting yourself second do not do it!
Think about it for a moment. When you do something you don’t really want to do you… it not only uses up valuable time, but also plays on your mind. Bad feelings towards the other person can grow when really they didn’t do anything wrong. You said “Yes” and they aren’t a mind-reader. They didn’t know that you didn’t really want to do it.
So how should you respond when someone asks you to do something you don’t want to do. Well, the easiest thing is to, be a woman and, say no (tactfully of course) straight away. However, if you are building up to that then say “I need to check my calendar”. This will give you the time to figure out an appropriate response and get back to them.
Remember,
“EVERY TIME YOU SAY NO TO SOMEONE ELSE YOU ARE SAYING YES TO YOURSELF.”
You are important. Your time is valuable and you should spend it how you want to spend it.
Do comment below about how you deal with saying no to people.