It’s a simple rule but one that has served me well over the last few years.
As a born people-pleaser I grew up saying yes to anyone and everything in an effort to be helpful and to have people think well of me. The idea of actually saying no to someone didn’t occur to me until I was well into my 30s and even then it was a real internal struggle.
However hard I tried my default response was always to blurt out yes and then to end up feeling overwhelmed and resentful that I didn’t have time to do the things I wanted to do.
And honestly, it’s still a work in progress. I still find myself nodding and wanting to say yes but I’ve taught myself to slow down, take a breath and actually give myself a bit of time before deciding whether to say yes or not.
Obviously, sometimes there are those opportunities that come along and are an instinctive ‘hell, yes’, something that you know in your gut that you really want to do. But for those times when you want a bit of breathing space before committing it’s helpful to have a few stock phrases up your sleeve.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Everyday Knitter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.