By LISA ALMOND
I am a ‘yes’ woman.
That is really hard for me to admit, but I am.
I always say yes to everything and I hate asking for help.
I’m stubborn, super stubborn. Actually I’m mega-hugely-massively stubborn.
The problem with being a ‘yes’ person is it makes you a stressed person.
I say yes, I want to help everyone, I want to work on lots of projects and I take on numerous jobs at once. I always have.
I have a bit of a routine that happens. I say yes to everything then after saying yes to a hundred different projects and activities I suddenly stop in my tracks and go, “holy crap how I am going to get all that done?”
Then I stress and stress and stress and then complete everything last minute.
The best evidence of me being a yes woman was when I was 22.
At the time I was at uni, working and interning in the city. Sounds pretty standard for a 22 year old, except at 22 I was also a primary carer for my one-year-old son and six months pregnant with my second. I dragged him and my big belly around the country to get everything done that I had said yes to.
Just as an FYI, this post is sponsored by Tourism Fiji. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100% authentic and written in their own words.
That was probably the pinnacle of being stressed in my life.
Recently when I saw a quote by Ray Bradbury, I sighed. I knew EXACTLY what he meant.
“Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.”
– Ray Bradbury
When I was 22 I was well and truly strangling life. In fact, at that point, life was probably gasping for its last breath.
Over time I’m slowly learning how to de-stress but even that is taking time.
You see, I didn’t get any better at saying ‘no’. I continued to take on more and more and throughout my entire adult life I have juggled parenthood, study and work. I’ve never not had more than two of the three on. And for the most part I’ve constantly juggled all three at once.
It’s hard, and it’s stressful and like Mr Bradbury said, I need to learn to relax and just let life happen instead of making life happen.
Top Comments
How many people have TVs in their bathrooms?? 2 of 7 featured staff members is a pretty high statistic, compared to my experience of TVs being in bathrooms (read: zero).
From another Yesser
I thought being a yes person meant that you say yes to everyone, not that you are addicted to overloading your schedule. I know the two aren't mutually exclusive: some people say yes to everyone so they can have an overloaded schedule. Some people say yes to everyone because they don't want to let them down. It is a bit different.