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Every yes, is a no to someone else. The problem is that for many of us, this never crosses our minds. Our boss asks us to stay late at the office for something pressing and we quickly respond with a yes, not thinking about the fact that we just told our family no. We’re working on an important report that needs to be completed today when we hear our email alert go off. We open our laptop and take a peek at our inbox, the email is marked urgent! We drop the report and say yes to the email. We walk outside to go for a jog when our neighbor spots us across the lawn and hollers our name. It’s been awhile since we’ve chatted so we proceed to do just that for the next 45 minutes, effectively saying no to our new workout routine.

Sometimes we think we can get through life saying yes to everyone. We hate the idea of letting people down so whoever is currently asking us for time or energy gets whatever they want, which gives us the illusion that we never say no. This is bull. The reality is that we’re saying no all the time, and even worse than that we’re lettings ourselves be bullied by the urgent and missing what’s most important. The key is to know your priorities and choose those each and every day.

Photo Credit: Ferran.