Stop Saying 'YES' To Everyone & Everything

 

If I blurt out a blanket statement like STOP SAYING 'YES' TO EVERYONE & EVERYTHING, I have to admit that I may be mistaken for sheer braggadocio because that's easier said than done, right?  HOW can a child who keeps kowtowing his parent NOT say YES?  HOW can a student NOT say YES WHEN his academic professor assigns other random tasks for him [even to his detriment]?  And if you're into sales and marketing, HOW can you NOT say YES WHEN your potential customer [for a juicy contract] keeps asking for multiple FOCs [free of charge] service OR product provisions?  And if you are a newly onboarded employee, HOW can you NOT say YES to your boss WHO dumps this and that task to you right on your Day-1?  Just one too many realities in life WHERE it seems we are hapless and helpless NOT to say YES TO EVERYONE & EVERYTHING💚💛💜

I remember by Day-1 at Shell where I had the first taste of a blue-chip workplace and by noon time, our Dutch expat boss invited me for lunch.  To my personal shock, he brought me over to his favorite nightlife haunt, a nearby chic club WHERE, even with the blistering heat at noon time, we were in that cool club having our lunch while we were entertained on stage by the club's 'stars'.  I'm NOT giving any excuses here BUT at that moment in time, my Day-1 @Shell, HOW CAN I NOT SAY 'YES' [and that's to my boss at that time]???

Obviously, there are tons of realities in life WHICH are hardly part of the pre-scripted narratives in life.  NOT to besmirch our school and academic mentors [and even our immediate families], as we were raised up from childhood, for a thousand times, we were taught to say YES to the elders.  And rightfully, there's nothing wrong with that, per se, except that that's simply 'old school', period.  And I'd admit that that was more prevalent especially in the third world where people were more culture-centric compared to the first world people WHO were more opinionated and WHO were more vocal and frank to a point that they often claimed being autonomous even to those 'seniors' or authorities either in government, school OR organizations💧💧💧

Admittedly, I used to SAY TO EVERYTHING!  Even WHEN I migrated to Singapore, things just turned from bad to worse because if prior to migrating, I was saying YES 70% of the time, WHEN I became a naturalized Singapore citizen, I realized I was saying YES more than 70% of the time.  NO excuses.  NO alibis.  I lost the handle of things during those times BUT before things could have turned from worse to worst, I realized that that was the final call, the 'clarion call' for me to shape up and realize WHAT's right and WHAT's not💥💥💥

Our takeaway:  If I have a so obvious REALIZATION in life, it's that giveaway fact that REALIZATIONs will always happen post a situation OR incident.  You just CAN'T expect to push the cart ahead of the horse.  BUT the glimmer of hope here is that, if we can share even a simple insight like this, that REALIZATION can be averted if we're to raise our self-awareness that you CAN'T be flagged down to say NO when, in good faith, your conscience and judgment tells you that you are on the right side for saying NO regardless WHO you are interacting OR engaging to.  YES dude, STOP SAYING 'YES' to everyone and everything😡😡😡