“The biggest fear most of us have with learning to say NO is that we will miss an opportunity. An opportunity that would have catapulted us to success, or that will never come again. And most of the time*, that simply isn’t true. I’ve found that the first part of learning to say NO is learning to accept that offers and opportunities are merely an indication that you’re on the right path- not that you’ve arrived at a final destination you can never find again.’”
Grace Bonney on saying no (courtsey of the Farnam Street newsletter, June 13 2021
As I wrote in “Focus means saying NO“:
Up until about my late 30s, I took pride in saying “yes” to opportunities, absolutely filling my time relentlessly with variety and quantity of work. I used to call myself a “specialist generalist” as indeed I worked in so many countries, types and sizes of businesses that I do feel I could effectively contribute to a massive variety of roles and businesses almost anywhere. However, as time went by, I began to recognise (and friends and mentors began to strongly suggest to me) that I started to say “no” to more and more opportunities in order to focus on my own Ikigai: a) What I am best and most uniquely suited to do, b) What I love to do and c) What the world needs
In short, I say no to opportunities a lot.
I love the thoughts from Grace Bonney above.
I encourage you to consider saying NO to opportunities at least once in a while, simply consider such offers to be an indication as to whether or not you are on the right path.