Coach Carlota Zimmerman cautions that the admonition to “always say yes” is not to be taken literally. By agreeing to all possibilities indiscriminately, we risk ruining our lives.
You’ve probably heard of people who have a «year of opportunity» for themselves. Determined to change lives, they are going to say yes to every opportunity. They decide to fall in love, lose weight, learn a foreign language, learn a new profession, go around the world, start their own business, get another education, build relationships with their parents, write a novel, move to another city, master a musical instrument… The list is endless. Perhaps you yourself arranged a year of opportunities. With the right approach, this practice can truly be life-changing. It allows us to understand ourselves and our desires.
We learn to take our goals seriously and take the hard steps to realize our cherished desires. For example, if you want to learn Chinese, you need to sign up for courses, buy textbooks, and push yourself to study day after day.
Any change is a process. In the end, it will become entertaining, but at first it will be difficult. If you do not consider your desires important, you will not be able to fight for them for a long time.
Don’t say «yes» to everything. It is important to approach this wisely and choose the right opportunities. Let’s say next year you finally learn French, go on a bike tour of the French countryside, start blogging about your adventures, and write a novel or movie script. This is a well-lived year of opportunity.
Another example: you decide that next year you will find a better job. After sending three hastily prepared responses to vacancies, they were refused, upset and, out of grief, shaved their heads or got a tattoo on their necks. Everything would be fine, only you work in a conservative industry. The boss did not appreciate the transformation and pointed you to the door.
You need a year of opportunity to clean up your head, gather your strength and work hard.
Of course, some of us do have to go through a layoff to get the momentum we need to start changing our lives. If that’s what you planned, then you’re good to go. Most importantly, be honest with yourself. Every action will have consequences.
In order to properly live the year of opportunity, it is important to say “yes” to three things: realizing your potential, fulfilling your cherished desires, and developing the best in yourself. Choose challenging, intellectually demanding tasks that accelerate your progress, even if it can be scary or difficult at times.
You need a year of opportunity to clean up your head, gather your strength and work hard. Say yes to slow but sure changes that will bring you closer to the life you dreamed of. You need a year of opportunity that will allow you to truly change your life, not just mask problems. Yes, this is an incredibly difficult job, but this year will be the year of victories for you.
Don’t use the opportunity year to justify yourself and say yes to the worst impulses that lead to self-destruction. Otherwise, at the end of the year, the realization will come that in fact, all this time you have been rejecting opportunities.
Source: The Huffington Post.