"I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."
~ No. 1 Regret of the Dying
Stay with me, I know this is a little morbid, but... this☝️ is the most common regret of the dying.
When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled.
The good news is, you're (hopefully) not dying right now, and you have the ability to change the way you react to other people's expectations of you. NO is more of a philosophy, a mantra, than a negative word. You've assigned negative connotations to the word your whole life (totally makes sense), but it's time to flip that, and see NO as an opportunity, as something that frees you from unwanted and unnecessary obligations to people you don't need to please.
You can change your brain. It usually takes around 30 days. 😉
"It's a shame that so many of us went through school thinking that some people were better at school than others. That some people had better focus than others. Or even that some people were smarter than other people.
But the truth is, you're not "stuck" with the brain you're given when you're born. Our brains are always growing and evolving. And our minds work a lot like muscles. They can be melded and adjusted, and exercised, in order to build them into the shape and level of strength that we want.
If we choose to use intentionality when we think about our focus and attention and try to build them up as skills, we can unlock so much power in ourselves.
Anyone can have the ability to focus. Anyone can improve the level, and the power, of their focus. And anyone can use that focus on the most important things in their life."
Robin Copple - "You're Not Supposed to be Good at Focusing Out of the Gate"
NO takes practice.
Start small, work your way up.
See you tomorrow for the final day of NO-vember.
- Jason