Adopting a Success Attitude
STANDING UP FOR YOUR PRIORITIES
As you work to clarify your priorities, you’ll face some tough choices about how to spend your time, especially when people you care about make requests for (or demands on) your time. In some cases, you’ll have to assert yourself and say “no” or offer ideas for arriving at a compromise.
Describe a recent incident in which you should have said “no” to someone who made a request for (or demand on) your time but you said “yes” instead. Record which of the following beliefs led you to say “yes”.
Saying “no” will hurt and upset them.
Saying “no” will make them feel rejected.
If I say “no,” they won’t like me anymore.
Others’ needs are more important than mine.
I should always try to please others.
Saying “no” is rude.
Saying “no” is unkind and selfish.
To feel better about saying “no,” think critically about each belief you answered “yes” to. For each belief, provide a more helpful way of viewing the situation. For example, instead of “Saying ‘no’ will hurt and upset them,” tell yourself, “They might be hurt if I say ‘no,’ but if they care about me, they’ll understand,” or “I may hurt someone by turning down their initial request, but maybe I can fulfill the request another time.”