A Bigger Yes

“You have to decide what your highest priorities are & have the courage pleasantly, smilingly, unapologetically to say no to other things. And the way to do this is to have a bigger yes burning inside.”                                                    Stephen Covey

I stumbled across this quote from Stephen Covey, the author of ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ only recently. It resounded with the depths of my very soul. Why? Because it’s something that has become true of me.I used to say yes to a lot of good things that were good and had good results, because—you guessed it—they were good. In truth—it took me a long time to realise that though they were good, they weren’t right for me. Then I started to say no to the good things and yes to the right things. The outcome shocked me.The good swiftly became forgotten and I actually felt like I did too. And the right resonated with my bigger yes. Case in point. I said no to a social gathering which would have been good in order to go to a writing event. As a part of the registration process I was asked if I would like to submit a question to the Presenter. Because I was in the mindframe of a bigger yes, I started to behave in a bigger way.  So I went bold and asked “How do I get a mentor in the publishing/author industry?”Long story short (I recount the events very well in person!), at the end of the event the Presenter finished up by saying, “Someone asked for a mentor. Come up and see me at the end—I’ll be your mentor.” So once I picked my chin up off the floor I introduced myself to him. He has since been kind enough to review and critique my work and we’ve met up several times. And this particular person isn’t simply a nice person—he has had several books published successfully and works in an important role in one of Australia’s leading newspapers. I still shake my head in utter disbelief!

Maybe it’s time for you to say yes to the higher priorities so you might be the human you were designed to be.