Most of us have a hard time saying the word “no.”
It’s not that we’re all a bunch of pushovers.
It’s that we sometimes forget that each of us only brings a finite amount of time and energy to the table each day.
When others ask things of us, we might feel flattered that they would come to us seeking our help.
Or we may feel a sense of obligation where declining their request would make us look selfish or uncaring.
This can be especially difficult when the person asking something of us is close to us or someone we admire.
Those who find it difficult to say “no” eventually find themselves struggling to fulfill all of the obligations they’ve agreed to take upon themselves.
And that can get unhealthy in a hurry by creating stress and exhaustion and preventing us from saying “yes” to the things that matter more to us.
This doesn’t mean that we should never say “yes” to what others ask of us.
It simply means that we must have a clear enough sense of our deepest priorities to know when to assert our personal limits and to insist that they be respected.
This can be done with courtesy but it also requires a degree of firmness.
In other words, it must be our final answer.
When we learn to say “no” without having to explain ourselves, we are claiming stewardship over the things that are most important to us.
The Power of Saying "No"