Learning To Say No

Photo courtesy of Flickr user S.C. Asher

My friend Patrice asked me what happened to my blogging this week? I felt so flattered that somebody noticed I kept a minimum profile this past week.

Last 7-10 days were a really busy time for me, mostly because I said yes when I should of said no.

Take for instance my fantasy baseball addiction activity; this year I played in three leagues and I was aiming to reduce it to two this season.

I am in four.

Not only am I now in four fantasy leagues- I had to fit four drafts in my schedule. Perhaps I should of said no to a league or two.

After stage managing three shows back-to-back, I was looking forward to a long respite from theatre so I could focus on other projects. I got an emergency call last month and now I am working backstage on another show- one that went into tech last week. As we all know, tech week is a week long hell of long nights.

Things couldn’t of come at worse time. Last week was also my last day at TMG and my first day at NMS. While I was busy ending one job and starting a new one by day- I was working tech on a large musical at night. In between I was also drafting some baseball teams.

Something’s gotta give right?

So I didn’t  blog for a week. I also skipped the gym and ate a diet of fast food.

Now this isn’t one of those  “OMG I haven’t blogged forever” posts. Instead I reflected back on this crazy week and learned a lesson: sometimes you have to say no.

It’s hard for me to tell people no, it’s not who I typically am: positive, ambitious, and hard-working. When you say no it’s easy to think you are none of those things. Like many young professionals like me we are quick to please and always looking to do more in order to move up in the world.

But when does it become too much? When does it reach a point that you are doing yourself more harm than good?

There are reasons we say yes or no to things, we weigh the pros and cons and eventually make a decision. Too often we don’t properly weigh the idea of time- and how a saying yes costs more of our time than we thought.

Is Generation-Y full of yes-men? We are known for fiercely enforcing a good work-life balance but what happens when you overload your personal life?

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