The Power of Yes

This week, we are going to learn about a single word of power.

One that will open doors, create opportunities, and enable you to grow.

That word?

Yes.

Without “yes,” our lives become boring, stagnant, and repetitive.

But saying yes can be tough.

Especially when we are busy… or afraid.

So how do we say yes? And to which things?

Let’s unlock the power of yes and open your world to opportunity, growth, and new experiences.

Why Yes?

Opportunity and growth exist in the land of yes.

Also, we either ask for a yes, or reply with a yes.

Can you think of an important question where you answered with a yes? What about to a question you asked?

Here are a few impactful yes questions in my life:

“Can you get me a cage fight?”

“Want to run a 50-mile race?”

“Would you like to work at Microsoft?”

“Would you marry me?”

Whether I was asking for a yes or answering with a yes, it was the only answer which resulted in new opportunities.

I could have said no, or never asked… but where would I be today if that were the case?

Not here writing to you, that is for sure.

Where would you be? And where could you be if you said yes more often?

When to Say Yes

If you say yes to everything you will be overwhelmed.

So, what should we say yes to?

Here are a couple filter criteria you can use.

The Purpose Filter

Check the opportunity in front of you. Is it aligned with your purpose? Will it help you get close to achieving your purpose?

If so, then consider saying yes.

If you are not sure, consider what you won’t achieve by not saying yes (this double negative is intentional).

If you don’t say yes, you may not come closer to fulfilling your purpose. Are you ok with that?

The Mentor Filter

This is a filter I like to use when an ask is aligned with someone I admire.

What do I mean by this?

Mentors will give you advice and teach you things they learned. We can accelerate our progress by assimilating their learnings into our processes.

When we are presented with an opportunity, we can ask, “what would my mentor do?”

This was me when learning MMA.

My instructors all competed at different levels in the sport. When I was offered an opportunity to jump in a cage and fight, I used the mentor filter.

I could not just spar and do drills all the time if I really wanted to learn mixed martial arts. My mentors knew this… and so did I.

This happens at work as well.

Our mentors share stories about things they did to advance their career, risks they took…

Can you see a similar risk to say yes to?

Yes Brings Responsibility

When you say yes, you must find a way to assimilate the new tasks into your list of priorities.

We all know that there is limited time in the day.

Any one thing we do at a given time comes at the expense of every other thing we could be doing with that time.

When we say yes, we immediately commit to chewing up a certain amount of our time.

This is one reason why we want to say no…. but that is another article for another day.

Committing to a new thing brings the responsibility of executing on that thing (I mean, duh).

But unless we point that out explicitly, we cannot confront the next step.

What do you need to give up in order to take action on the new thing?

Many busy professionals would cut their sleep, or maybe their workouts, in order to get more done.

Don’t do this.

If you do this, then you are one step closer to working with me so you can undo the impact of those decisions.

Instead, figure out what must go.

Use the Purpose Filter and the Mentor Filter to assess your current list of tasks.

What is not aligned with your mission?

What is not going to help you move forward?

Cut it.

When to say no

I am going to write about this in detail next week.

For now, just use your filters to assess if an opportunity will move you closer to your long-term goals or not.

If it won’t, then say no.

The Wrap Up

Growth, development, adventure… all of these things exist when we say yes to new opportunities.

ONLY when we say yes.

If you are constantly saying no, consider why.

If you are saying no due to fear… then you will remain in your comfort zone and the growth and adventure will pass you by.

I challenge you to say yes.

Say yes to that new opportunity.

Say yes to that thing you are kind of afraid of.

Say yes to the adventure.

Your future self will thank you.

Get some.

Clark