What are you saying "yes" to?

It starts by noticing . . .

It has often been said that every time you say, “yes”, to something you are also saying, “no”, to something else. This can help to remind us that time is a limited resource. If I say, “yes”, to participating on that committee, that may mean that I'm saying, "no", to having dinner with my family during that time.

The opposite of this statement is also true.  Every time we say, “no”, to something, we are saying, “yes”, to something else. In my example above that might mean that if I decide not to participate on the committee that I will have dinner with my family.

But what if I don’t use that time to have dinner with my family? What if instead of using that extra time to prepare a sit-down meal, I use that extra time to scroll through my Facebook feed or stay later at work. In that case, I have said, "no", to both the board meeting and family dinner but said, "yes", to scrolling through my Facebook feed and doing more work.

Take a minute to consider what you are not saying, "yes", to because you don't feel like you have time for it. What are you saying, "yes", to without pausing to consider the value of that activity? Of course, we can't approach every activity of our day with disciplined intention, that would be overly rigid and rob us of spontaneous joy. We can pay attention to the activities that bring us a sense of fulfillment and line up well with our values. When we notice those activities, we might consider how we can say "yes" to them with more intention.

In my next blog I will describe how to conduct your own personal, "yes day", experiment.