In order to be successful in whatever path you chose to take you probably try to make all the right decisions, all of the time.
However, you don’t need to make the right decision every time.
That would be far too much to ask. We all make mistakes, it’s human nature.
The objective should be to make more good decisions than bad ones.
That’s enough to keep you heading in the right direction and that counts for a lot.
Now when you think about making the right decisions it’s natural to just think of the tasks or projects you decide to undertake and the opportunities you cease.
Falling Into a Common Trap
If it’s the things you say ‘yes’ to which you consider most important you might be falling into a common trap.
The problem with this is that if you’re trying to make good progress you can easily fall into the trap of accepting every offer and ceasing every possible opportunity.
Although this might sound great, you can’t do everything. There’s simply not enough hours in the day and even if there was, Focusing on anything becomes so much more difficult and productivity drops.
As time progresses and more opportunities present themselves to you (and they will) you’ll eventually have to learn that you need to start saying ‘no’.
Saying ‘no’ to people isn’t always easy but it’s one of the best things you can learn to do if you want to manage your time effectively and not be overwhelmed by all those offers you accepted, most of which you now wish you hadn’t.
Too many people learn this the hard way because you eventually have to learn it one way or another.
Constantly saying ‘yes’ leads to overworking, lack of focus and ultimately giving up altogether due to the strain you’ve subjected yourself to.
We don’t want any of those things as none are conducive to being productive and achieving success. They’ll just drag you down and demotivate you.
How to Avoid This Trap
By giving you this information now hopefully I can prevent the otherwise inevitable scenario of you working every waking hour trying to keep everyone happy but yourself and trying to fulfil all those promises you made.
Be selective about the offers you accept and the opportunities you cease, because if you’re not those promises you make might end up becoming liabilities.
I used to fall into the trap of saying ‘yes’ to everything and most of the promises I made soon felt like a burden to me and did nothing to improve my life in any way.
When you first start saying ‘no’ you might feel a little awkward about it, I certainly did. You’re also likely to feel like you’re letting people down. There’s a good book on Amazon that details this aspect.
What you’ll also notice though is that you’ll feel a sense of freedom that you never felt beforehand.
That time you would have spent doing something you probably didn’t really want to do is now your own again. It’s still available to use as you wish, doing something you enjoy or something that’s really beneficial for you or your business. It’s all about Time Management.
Practice saying ‘no’ and once you’ve done it a few times you’ll realise why it’s such an important thing to start doing.
Saying ‘no’ more often gives you a sense of freedom, allows you to focus on what’s really important (a key Business Mindset principle) and puts you back in control.
What are your experiences of saying ‘no’ to people?
