Why You Need to Start Saying “Yes” More
A bit of a contrarian take
For years, I have been telling people they need to say no more often.
By saying no, you take control of your time. There is no reason you should go to the dinner you are dreading.
When you say yes to a dinner you don’t actually want to attend, you’re also saying no to the things that matter… such as your kids (or yourself).
While this is true, I believe that many of us (myself included) have started to say no too often.
We now have a saying no epidemic. And this epidemic limits our potential experience.
Let me explain…
A little story
In 2015, I said yes to a little meeting which would lead to me buying a nightclub. This was one of the best decisions of my life.
I wanted to open a new club with someone I looked up to. The only problem was that he had just opened a nightclub and was not interested in opening another one.
He said we can meet anyway.
At first, I didn’t really see the point if we were not going to open a club together. Why bother?
I said yes anyway, and it ended up leading to us still becoming business partners.
Someone who wants to be very intentional and have control over their time would have to say no. That person would have missed an opportunity that led to many incredible experiences.
Because I said yes, I met incredible people, made money, got my name out there, and had a ton of fun.
We don’t always know what’s best (despite our best attempts).
Sometimes, going against what we believe is our better judgment will lead to an unexpected, better outcome.
Open up to experience
It can be super tempting to say no to a night out. It can be even more tempting to say yes and then cancel at the last minute.
By doing that, you gained control over your time, your oh-so-precious time. But now you have missed out on what could have been amazing.
FOMO.
You do not know what would have happened that night.
You might have met the girl of your dreams.
You could have been in the right place at the right time and saved someone’s life.
You could have seen something random happen that gave you an incredible business idea.
Of course, we could say that about anything.
The point is not to say yes to everything. It is time to start saying yes more than you have been.
You need to allow yourself the opportunity to expand your possible experience.
Your possible experience
The more things you do, the wider your possible experience opens up. This affects you in two ways.
The First
The exact experience you would have had in the moment.
Such as meeting the girl, saving a life, or something randomly fun happening.
The Second
Since you have now experienced more things in life by saying yes, you have new ways to experience happiness.
For example, that night, something funny happened. Now, you have a new insider joke with your friends.
If you weren’t there, every time your friends would be laughing about that joke, you would be missing out.
Niche case? Sure.
What if you said no to the museum tour instead?
On that tour, you would have learned about the beauties in this world. Moving forward, any time you see something that would remind you of what you learned, you would be happy.
Because you learned more, you expanded your possible experience.
To wrap it up
Saying yes opens up your life to endless possibilities. One of those possibilities is a higher level of experience, something your stubborn mind may not have thought of.
Don’t get me wrong, saying no is very important as well, and was a problem for many people for a long time.
But saying yes is equally important. Don’t get lost in the “no” sauce.
Thanks for reading