Deep Dive Series: The Power of No Without a Reason
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
The July 8th episode of the A Bit of Optimism podcast was called “Live Like You Have 2 Years Left” with dancer and cancer survivor Angela Trimbur. Angela had breast cancer and worked with a therapist during that time. In their sessions, Angela and her therapist’s main goal was learning ways to keep her stress levels low in order to fight her cancer and bring health to her body. Whatever made the least amount of stress in Angela’s life, that’s the decision that she was mandated to make. This necessitated learning how to say no to things. Even if Angela had plans, she learned it’s ok to cancel because she was sick. She had an excuse. Her energy levels during chemo made her tired, and sometimes she literally physically could not stick to plans.
But you don’t have to go through chemo to say no. You don’t need a reason at all to say no. You can be as ruthless as Angela was during her time fighting cancer at any time in your own life. If a decision is going to add unwanted stress to your life, you can say no without explanation. My favorite way to say no without a reason is to say I’m unavailable. If you think about it, we are all terminal. We’re all going to die, none of us will make it out of here alive. And most of us don’t know when that will be. This is your one wild and precious life. Be ruthless and say no to any aspects of life that aren’t for you…no reason needed.
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Sincerely Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team