How To Say No To Others

The Personal Excellence Podcast

May 2 2016 • 28 mins

Do you hate to say no? Do you often find yourself saying yes because you don't like to make others feel bad? Well, I do, and I can relate. I used to be terrible at saying no until I realized that continually saying "yes" was digging myself into a ditch and led me with little time for my personal goals and relationships. In this episode of The Personal Excellence Podcast, I share 6 tips to say no that I've been applying, along with personal examples: Tip #1: Know what you want to say yes to [00:57] Tip #2: Know that saying no is okay [04:43] Tip #3: Many little yeses to irrelevant things, or mildly relevant things, even if small, can deviate you from your main goal [08:26] Tip #4: Be honest about it [13:22] Tip #5: Give alternatives (if you like) [19:04] Tip #6: Do a life audit if you're getting a high noise signal [20:04] Listen to the podcast via my online player, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or subscribe directly to my RSS feed. The Personal Excellence PodcastShow Menu Podcast Subscription Menu Listen on iTunesListen on SpotifyListen on GoogleListen on TuneInListen on CastboxListen on PocketCastsListen on OvercastSubscribe via RSSHow To Say No To OthersShow Podcast Information If you've found The Personal Excellence Podcast useful, I'd really appreciate it if you can leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review makes a difference and will help spread the message of conscious living to the world. Thank you! How To Say No [Transcript] Welcome to the Personal Excellence Podcast, the show that's all about helping you be your best self and live your best life. Now, your host, Celestine Chua! Celestine Chua: Hey everyone! Welcome to The Personal Excellence Podcast Episode 6. I'm Celestine Chua from PersonalExcellence.co. Today's topic really hits home for me. It's about how to say no. I don't know about you, but I used to be really bad at saying no. In a way I still am. But I've learned to be a lot better at it. If you are someone who has difficulty saying no, today I want to share with you six tips that have worked really well for me and I hope you'll find them helpful. 1) Know what is it you want to say yes to My tip number one is to know what you want to say yes to. For me, when I just focus on learning how to say no as an action in itself, it becomes a hollow quest. Because my default self is to help people. I like to agree to requests as much as I can. And I like to be there for other people. Obviously, this has its own implications. After countless situations where I just kept saying yes, yes, yes to every single person, request, and favor, I just didn't have any time for myself, for my goals. On the other hand, when I focus on the things that I want to say yes to, meaning my biggest goals and dreams, my Quadrant 2 projects, this helps me define this clear vision of the real big priorities in my life. Let's say I don't have this clear vision. Everything can simply be important. Yet, when framed into the context where we all have limited time on Earth, we all have certain ambitions to realize within our lifetime, then it becomes clear that we need to prioritize the things that we say yes to, and hence no to the other things. For me, what I want to say yes to would be PE. All of you guys. Growing it, creating more content for you guys, creating more great courses. Just being there for all of you, through my content. And of course, my loved ones, my family members. And my own personal growth and health. These would be the biggest rocks I wish to say yes to. So these priorities will never change. They will just be there, till the day I die. Knowing these key big rocks puts into context the things I should say yes to, and the things I should say no to. For example, let's say someone may be asking for a favor or pitching a proposal or an idea that is not a good fit for my business. Then letting it drag on will not help my Quadrant 2 goals, and in fact,