You know the expression, “If I had $1…”? Well, if I had $1 for every time someone said to me, ‘Cyril, I can’t say no. That’s my problem,’ I’m sure I’ll have a bit of money.
I mentioned that because earlier today, I talked to an exec of a large financial organisation based in New York. And he told me exactly that:
“Oh, I’ve got so much to do, Cyril, and I can’t say no.”
What’s interesting here is that everyone who says they can’t say ‘no’ is saying ‘no’ all the time. Because whenever you say ‘yes’ to something, you actually say ‘no’ to many other things. And so, if you say, “Well, I can’t say no…”, actually, by saying yes to something, you are saying no to something else.
The challenge is to make sure you say yes to the right things.
Bonjour. In this video, I want to share a simple tactic that can have a huge impact on your workload.
There’s an entrepreneur named Derek Sivers who did a TED talk called ‘Hell Yeah’. And he said one thing that I really like:
“When you look at a request – someone asked you to do something – ask yourself, ‘Is that a “Hell yeah”? There’s ‘Hell yeah’, or ‘No’ – there’s nothing in between.”
And so, whenever someone asks you something to do, pause, take the time to think about it, and ask yourself, “Is that really a hell yeah?”.
I’ve said many times before that performance is not about quantity. It’s not linked to the number of emails you’re working on, nor to the number of meetings you’re attending. Rather, performance is focusing on the few things that are really going to have an impact.
And so, let your gut talk to you. Is something a ‘hell yeah’ in terms of it positively affecting your performance? In terms of positively affecting how you want to grow your business? In terms of positively affecting your personal life? Or is that a ‘no’?
Now, let me ask you this:
What did you say yes to recently that, deep inside, you knew was a ‘hell no’?
And let’s go even further: Because you said yes to that, what’s the price you paid for it?
This is this week’s Work Smarter, Live Better tip. I hope you enjoyed it.
A bientôt,
Cyril
