Saying No Is Actually A Positive Thing
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How To Say No
To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on Jan 1, 2012
Although we may associate “No” with a negative assertion, it can be actually a very positive thing you can do – depending on what type of “No” it is. Today, I will discuss some simple ways to say “no” to take charge of your life and time.
Why Say No
- There are only so many hours in a day. Saying “no” to unproductive and time wasting things will
make you a lot more productive.
- Saying “no” to a new commitment which you won’t be able to handle will give your existing projects
more time to finish with a quality outcome.
- When we are stressed, depressed, and burned out from our modern day rigorous time consuming and high-paced activities, saying “no” will free up time to relax and wind down.
- Saying “no” is respecting your time and respecting yourself. It will eliminate tasks that you don’t
enjoy and will free up time to pursue your goals and dreams.
Simple Ways to Say No
Say No With A Smile – Saying “no” is a lot simpler when you add a genuine smile to it and avoid a serious face. Also, the person you are saying “no” to will take it a lot easier way if you say “no” in a smiling face.
Add A Brief Explanation – If you add a short explanation to the reason behind your saying “no,” the other person will understand it and will not get emotional or reactive. However, stop giving out an essay. Explaining too much will make it worse and the other person will think that there is something to it.
Don’t Lie – Avoid making up reasons that aren’t true for excuses. Most likely, the other person will be able to guess that it’s a lie from your body posture and voice tone.
Delay Your Response – If you feel that saying “no” will be difficult and likely to cause an emotional outburst from the other person, instead of saying “no” right away, take some time and reply back at a later time. This works because if you say “no” at a later time, the other person will not be on a full alert to hear “no” (than when she proposed) and it will have less impact than the first time.
Offer An Alternative Solution – There will be times when you just simply can’t avoid it in a full scale. Offer something different and acceptable, yet keeping it within your means, so it does not cause you too much time and stress like the initial request.
Saying “no” at the right time will save you a lot of time later. As you get better with saying “no,” you will be able to manage, simplify, and reduce stress a lot better than before.
