I re-watched Jim Carey’s “Yes Man” movie this weekend. The movie’s slogan, “Yes is the New No,” seems to be the way of today’s world. The movie glamorizes always accepting the options laid before us, but the hustle is finally revealed at the end.
We say yes out of our desire to please others, often without recognizing the implications of the “no’s” that we are declaring at the same time. We say “yes” to so many things that we eventually rob ourselves from recreation, then sleep, and eventually to the relationships we value most friends and family. It’s OK to Start Stopping.
Seth Godin says, “Winners quit all the time. They just quit the right stuff at the right time” (Read The Dip). Our culture teaches us that quitting is a moral failure: “quitters never win, winners never quit.” It’s time to fight the cultural tides and start stopping. To see quitting in the sense of regaining freedom rather that a personal liability.
Time is the standard currency for relationships. You have 168 units of time this week. Sleep is going to take up 49-56 units (either commit to the rest now or subtract days off the end of your life). How are you investing the remaining time? How are you going to squeeze in relationship time with those you love?
How can we create more time? Dan Rockwell provides three options:
- Eliminate
- Delegate
- Accelerate
The easiest option is the hardest option: eliminate. We’ve got to learn to say no, but we also need to start eliminating, to start stopping. Make a list of your major time eaters and identify one that you can and need to stop. You have my permission to start stopping. The time has come to quit some good things for better things.
