Saturday, January 1, 2011

A Curmudgeon's Quest for Yes


No is a good word. An action word. It's strong. It's to the point. It's decisive. It takes little effort to use it. And it gets you out of almost any obligation.
"Pass me the remote."   no
"Dry the dishes please."   no
"Will you loan me $5?"   no
"Can you help me move?"   NO
Fantastic, right? But no isn't just for the lazy and unhelpful. It is capable of so much more! Say for instance someone should ask you, "You want a punch in the throat?!" I think we both know that you would be thankful for that strong decisive little word, no!
     Well being the angry curmudgeon that I am, I say no to everything, all the time. And therefore find myself without. Without fun. Without friends. Without adventure. Without memories. Without love. So that got me to thinking that really all this time I have actually been saying no to life.
      I don't want to be like Jim Carrey's character 'Carl' from Yes Man. (At least not in the first 20+ minutes anyhow) I want to discover what it's like to get the most out of life. So I have challenged myself, for the next calendar year, to learn to say YES! That's right. For 365 consecutive days I will choose to change my perspective in order to possibly change my nay saying ways and document it here in this blog.
     It's already begun, you see. Today I am saying yes to change. What did you say yes to today?

3 comments:

  1. good post--and I really dig the look of the blog itself. You should put this in your "about me" section, so everyone can read it all the time. It's cool, and it's a grabber:
    "I have challenged myself, for the next calendar year, to learn to say YES! That's right. For 365 consecutive days I will choose to change my perspective in order to possibly change my nay saying ways and document it here in this blog."

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  2. You have to be careful when saying either YES or NO. I often find myself in the other boat. I'm constantly saying YES to people. My calendar is full every night of the week. I'm constantly fixing someone's computer or painting something for them or helping them hook up their new TV. It's non-stop. Why? I'm a yes person.
    I have begun to learn how to say no. I have some nights to myself now. I have learned not to bend over backwards.
    In terms of you becoming a YES person - I say KUDOS! Just be careful. As people's expectations of you change, you might find your curmudgeon self in a bad spot when you realize that saying no is good SOMETIMES :) Point and case - the punch in the throat... but still. If you always say yes to people (like I do) they will not be happy when you begin to say no (again) to regain some balance.
    As they say, everything in moderation

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  3. I'm only going to say YES to living! Not to being a people pleaser or to being taken advantage of...if anything I'll be saying YES to being more selfish haha

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