CONTRIBUTED BY JULIA SAND

Recently I came to the realization that I am a yes-girl. Can I work for you Tuesday night? Sure! Can I make it to those meetings? Yep. Do this, do that, ask me to do anything, and apparently I’ll try. And only when I am on my last minute of availability, the ton of bricks I thought I could carry break me. It is then I realize maybe I could have afforded to say, “No, I can’t.” I have a feeling I am not alone.

For a lot of reasons, this could be viewed as a good problem. I enjoy it. Doing a million things in a day is an addiction. Saying “yes” is a habit. It makes me feel like I am conquering some sort of small-sized world, and it has led me to be apart of a lot of great things. But I think it’s equally as important to learn the power of no—even when it rolls off the tongue coated in what tastes like unnecessary guilt.

So for all of the yes’ers out there like me, this is the realization I have come to: the power isn’t in the yes. Maybe the power is the ability to say a firm, “No.” And this, in my opinion, can be used for a multitude of things in life. Even though it may feel powerful, and even prideful, to do everything, it takes strength to choose the no. No, I can’t work. No, I can’t meet at that time. Not because doing those things would cramp my style, but because sometimes sanity has to come first. Sometimes saying no means an hour to talk a walk by the lake, or catch up on some reading, or anything else that is for one person only: me.  Be strong. Say no to everyone else and, for once, yes to yourself.