Can you say No?

In 2017, a hip hop mogul and a hotshot tech entrepreneur decide to launch a music festival. They invite the biggest Instagram influencers and models to a remote island in the Bahamas to promote their festival. They shoot fantastic videos and orchestrate a remarkable marketing campaign to sell out the festival. It’s setting up to be a huge success.

Without giving the story away, let’s just say, it doesn’t quite go as planned. Our hero has a unique gift and vision which manages to have everyone around him transfixed. Each person around him ignores their inner voice of wisdom to achieve his dream. Even when they realized, the project was doomed.

The one thing I kept asking myself when I heard this story was: Why couldn’t anyone just say “NO”? 

And then it dawned on me. The ability to say “No” is like a muscle. You have to practice it. 

Society has tricked us into believing that you can’t say “no” without feeling guilty. You must always say “yes” to people, otherwise they won’t like you. You can see this in the daily media. You can hear this in schools. You even see it in the workplace. Society plays on the fear that you will be ostracized from the “group” on some level.

And the remarkable thing is: That’s complete B.S. You always have the option to say “No”.

The key to saying no in difficult situations, is to practice saying no in the easy situations. When someone requests that you stay back late for the work project, you can say, “No, I’m going to home.” When someone asks you to attend their party, you can say “No, sorry I can’t come.” When a friend asks you for help finishing their meal, you can say, “No sorry, I’m full.”

Unless you practice saying “No” regularly, you won’t be able to say it during the most challenging situations of your life. And then you’ll wonder to yourself, “Why did I end up in this situation?” Oh right… It’s because you were afraid of the repercussions of saying “No”.

It’s just a simple two letter word. Remove all the fear and drama associated with it. It doesn’t serve you.

Can you say “No”?