I have at last figured out how to say "no." I am 43. It's required 25 years of my grown-up life to become familiar with these two minuscule letters. Why? Three reasons, the blend of which is the ideal tempest for somebody like me: 1) I am an accommodating person; 2) it's human instinct to be truly penniless and requesting, considerably more so since we're caught at home; and 3) We live in a "say yes to life" culture. In any case, of the relative multitude of things that the pandemic has shown me, this is presumably the most remarkable one: "No" is the new "yes." Let's separate it:
I'm an accommodating person. Possibly you are, as well. For a long time of my life, in the event that you said the sky was green, I would say, "You know, it looks a little green today." I would discover some bit or beam or shadow of the obviously blue sky to make it valid. Tracker. Lime. Olive. Greenery. Pick a shade. There should be some green in there. I made it my main goal—in a nanosecond—to track down the green.
Why? Since I needed so gravely to interface with individuals. I needed to have a place. I needed to be important for the gathering. I needed to discover shared view with you enough that I would glaringly overlook my own eyes to concur. Obviously put, it was simply simpler. I saw zero worth in clashing. Conflicts lead to struggle. Struggle implies contending. Contending prompts battling. I experienced childhood in a house brimming with battling, drained of limits. I just couldn't do it. I would never summon "no." "Yes" evades the offensiveness of its inverse.
I was additionally a gay child. No compelling reason to go maybe a little overboard. I pay my specialist to examine the injury, all things considered, you don't should be exposed to it. However, all things considered, those of us who grew up deceiving ourselves for a very long time are extremely used to professing to be something—anything—we are not. Net-net, the human satisfying fell into place without any issues for me. Saying "no" implied I would need to remain by an elective perspective on the world—or elective perspective on the sky—and that was simply a lot for me to deal with. (Note: I need to thank the essayist Anne C. Frazier for her work on human satisfying. It has been really useful.)
Individuals are truly poor and requesting. Everybody is out to get approval, bliss, love, and acknowledgment. We're hard-wired for it. It's even in our establishing Declaration as a country. We're 328 million individuals continually seeking after bliss.
Maybe the lovely and reality of life that we found over the previous year is that we need one another, profoundly. We need to associate one-on-one, in gatherings, and with the bigger entirety. We encircle ourselves with these concentric circles: family, companions, local area, Facebook. It's the means by which we work as friendly animals. Saying "yes" frequently presents to us that approval, love, and acknowledgment from every one of those concentric circles. Together, this causes us to feel associated, cherished, seen, and esteemed.
All things considered, in the event that somebody doesn't get that approval, love, and acknowledgment from you, they will doubtlessly get it elsewhere. In the event that you can't satisfy the need at this moment, another person can. So "no" truly signifies, "I can't give you that today. Attempt somewhere else this time." Harsh, I know. However, in case you are a consistent wellspring of approval, love, and acknowledgment for every other person, odds are that you have no time or energy to give those exact same things to yourself.
We live in a "say yes to life" culture. America is the place where there is "yes." Yes implies opportunity. Indeed implies access. Indeed implies we are extending—personally, as a brand, as a power on the planet. For what reason would you say "no" and remove a potential way to every one of the things that you need: love, cash, achievement, associations, new encounters?
This way, however, is the issue. What's more, that is the thing that I have found being caught at home (solo) for the last year: I can at this point don't buy in to the idea that "yes" is the way to all I have at any point needed. Truth be told, I have tracked down that "no" is the street back to me.
"No" allows me to have additional time in my day. "No" eliminates the pinging and the ringing. "No" allows my nights to unfurl as they will. "No" allows me to sustain my new relationship. "No" makes the space for me to find, make, reflect, and develop—or simply sit at home and do totally nothing.* When the pandemic began, we as a whole said "yes" to each Zoom welcome, each virtual gathering, each academic intersectionality night. Since our customary wellsprings of approval, love, and acknowledgment were cut off rapidly, in merely days, we needed to discover better approaches to get to those sources. Zoom and Teams and Verizon and Spectrum were glad to help.
However, as the year trudged on, I found that I was stopping up my timetable similarly as I had previously. A considerable lot of us were. Each evening must be full. Consistently must be arranged. Consistently must be represented. In case I wasn't booking my life as far as possible, others were doing it for me. Furthermore, I was saying "yes." It was a characteristic and entirely justifiable reaction to the significant world shift we were all in all encountering. Unexpectedly, I was arriving at my enthusiastic immersion point without going out. Virtual life was similarly just about as occupied as genuine life. Something needed to give.
Also, that is the point at which I just began saying "no." Plain and straightforward. Apologies, can't do it any longer. What happens next is anyone's guess. The appropriate response is no. Done. Much obliged. Also, amazing, it has transformed me. Also, presently I love it. I can't get enough of it. Since "no" opens up a totally different universe of "yes" — "yes" to every one of the things that I simply haven't had the opportunity or energy for in the last five-to-ten-to-twenty years of my life: doing the New York Times Spelling Bee day by day, rehearsing my calligraphy, composing, perusing once more (real paper books!), and investing time with concealed loved ones without running off to 19 different responsibilities. For those of you who know and love the 80/20 principle, "no" has helped me 80/20 my whole life. (So has Sarah Knight. I'm currently a faithful pupil of "not giving a fuck.")
In this way, to be useful, my companions, here are nine different ways that I presently say "no." I regularly discover when I need to change a conduct, I need new dialect. We are what we talk. Toward that end, I offer you these new expressions to help you find "no." Try them out. Tell me how they work. Novices, attempt the expression. Go ahead and substitute the subtleties as you wish. For those of you who are progressed, add "No" before the expression. (By and by, I avoid "I can't." It's completely false. You can, however you simply don't have any desire to. Be straightforward. Lying makes you a poop chute. I additionally avoid "I am so occupied!" or "Things have been nuts here!" Lies. Untruths. Untruths.) Give it a shot. I trust "no" opens up an entirely different universe of "yes." And that it is the street back to you.
Sitting at home and doing literally nothing is the gift and the scourge of the pandemic. In any case, it is, first, a bad dream for those of us who are Type A. I'm figuring out how to accept the bad dream. Gee, possibly it is, truth be told, a fantasy.
