It turns out that one of the shortest words in the English language is also one of the most difficult ones to say. Saying no is something many of us have trouble with for many reasons. Train yourself to say no with ease by reminding yourself why you don’t want to do something. Freeing up your time to focus on a favorite hobby is a great reason to say no. Kindly thank the person asking something of you and then explain why you can’t do what they are asking. Providing a reason can prevent pushy people from continuing to try to talk you into the activity. If you feel some guilt, no worries. It’s perfectly normal and you will get over it and move on.
Key Takeaways:
- The author used to have a lot of trouble trying to stop saying no when actually what he wanted to do was to tell a person yes.
- To improve in his relationship and his estimate of himself, he had to work a lot on keeping in mind why he is saying no to a person.
- One question to ask oneself when he wants to say no and keep focused on family and other things is: “What are the top three priorities in my life?”
“The point of telling someone how you feel is not only to make them understand your side of the issue better but also that it is a lot harder to argue with how you feel rather than how you think.”