The Power of No
by Michelle Montoro
I spent the first 40 years of my life being a “yes” girl.
Craving to be popular, to be liked, to become the friend my friends could rely on.
Always.
To the point that I exhausted myself. Overwhelmed myself. Literally made myself crazy.
But I had only myself to blame.
You can’t really blame others for taking advantage of the “yes” girl.
Probably they didn’t even realize that I was saying “yes” to everyone who asked me for something. And I believe it is just human nature to keep asking the person who always says “yes.”
It is like a safety zone from rejection.
But for the sake of my own sanity, I needed to start saying “no” every once in a while. For a “yes” girl, this seems like a nearly impossible task. Saying “no” might very well be the end of the world as I knew it.
What if my friends thought I was suddenly unreliable? What if they stopped liking me? What if I became known as the selfish friend?
But what if I said “yes” so much that I couldn’t handle all the obligations that…
