Ryan Leak

And you see this everywhere.

You say yes to serving on a board.

Suddenly, there are committee meetings, planning calls, weekend events.

You say yes to speaking somewhere.

Suddenly, there's a planning meeting, travel logistics, slides to review, and follow-up requests.

You say yes to coffee with someone, suddenly it turns into a lunch, which turns into a referral request, which turns into another introduction.

Your yes has a way of growing legs.

Part of why I say no more these days is not because of the request itself.

It's because of the requests that come along with the request.

And if we're not careful,

We end up giving small pieces of ourselves to a hundred different directions while the most important parts of our life get whatever is left over.

And so I just am here today to encourage you to be one of those people that pauses and considers, hey, what do I need to start saying no to?

Because I'll just tell you this.

Every time that you say yes to something you're not supposed to say yes to, that definitely needs to be a no.

You're robbing your prior yeses of your best energy.

Like at some point, you've got to take inventory of the things you've already committed to, you've already said yes to, that if you're honest, really honest, you're not doing that great of a job with the yeses you've already given.

And so at some point, we've got to be able to communicate this to our outside world to be able to go, hey, and it can even be a little self-loathing.

And I tell people this, hey, I'm not doing that great with my podcast.

You don't want me to say yes to your podcast because I'm trying to get better at mine.

And I don't even know if I'm giving my absolute best to the yes I've already been given.