Recently, for a week straight I had conversation after conversation with family, friends and clients, in which the concept of “learning to say no” came up front and center. I don’t know about you, but when something like that happens I sit up and take notice.
The end of a year is a natural time to reflect on what has happened, what has not happened, to count blessings and comfort sorrows. And for some reason, everyone feels it necessary to make resolutions for the coming year. In and of itself, this is a worthy exercise. However, a good number of us take on grandiose commitments to changes that are mostly impossible to achieve. We start out in January full of gusto, and if we are lucky, continue on our brand new path into February, but by March we’ve given up and become self-deprecating about our inability to follow through. Bottom line ~ our resolutions often set us up for failure rather than success.
So, why not keep it simple? Forget the resolutions and, instead, take some time to write down what is truly important to you in your life. You might have a list of 10 things or maybe only 1. The key is that you know what is important!
From here it’s all about keeping this knowledge in your awareness and making one single commitment to 2017:
If something doesn’t line up with what is important to you,
take a deep breath and
say NO to it.
You see, this is what I learned in my conversations during that week. We often clutter our lives and eat up our time doing and being what we think we should instead of what we really want.
Want in this case does not mean self-indulgence but rather self-nurturance, when the things we choose to do uphold and encourage us to be the best we can be, to achieve our highest good.
Resolutions aspire to achieving our highest good but the lofty ladder they create is often hard to climb, whereas the daily steps of saying no to what does not serve us best actually promotes emotional, mental and energetic space and time to say yes to the things that do.
As I tell my coaching clients, Small steps set you up for bigger success! So, forget about the lofty resolutions. Get real. Know what you truly want for the coming year, and just say Yes to saying No!
With love and blessings for your highest good in 2017, Plynn
Plynn Gutman 