WHY IS SAYING “NO” THAT DIFFICULT?

WHY IS SAYING “NO” THAT DIFFICULT?



“Live your life for you not for anyone else. Don’t let the fear of being judged, rejected or disliked stop you from being yourself.”

When someone asks me for doing something I sometimes find myself thinking “no, no, no, no,” and then I blurt out “yes”. Why is it so difficult to say the word “no”? It’s just a word, right? I asked myself why it was so important for me to please everyone, to the point that I would feel resentful and stressed because of it. I realized I was afraid of disappointing someone, making them angry or appear unkind or rude. Later, I thought that this is not just a challenge that I face, but one that many people go through every day.

Saying “no” doesn’t mean that you are being rude, selfish, or unkind. These are all unhelpful beliefs that make it hard to say “no”. Learning where these beliefs have come from is a great way to learn to let go of them. Well, as children, we learned that saying “no” was impolite or inappropriate. If you said “no” to your mom, dad, teacher, grandparents and so on, you were most certainly considered to be being rude, and you would have probably been told off for it saying “no” was off-limits, and “yes” was the polite and likable thing to say. Now that we are more mature and capable of making our own choices. So “no” shouldn’t be an off-limits word, but rather something that we decide on ourselves, based on our own tact.

The next step to learning to say “no” is realizing that you are valuable and choosing your own opinion about yourself over others. The another step to learning to say “no” is deciding if saying “yes” is really worth it. After committing to something, doubt eventually sets in and you may begin to think of ways you can get out of it. And if you don’t have any good excess, you then have to decide if you are going to tell the truth or come up with a lie. You shouldn’t go for telling lie. Wouldn’t it be so much easier and straight forward to just say “no” in the first place?

So, it really isn’t worth it to say “yes” when you don’t want to. I have a right to say “no” and shouldn’t be afraid of letting other people down at the cost of my own happiness.

Puspa Banstola
Class: 12 ‘B’
Gandaki Boarding School
Pokhara, Nepal

 


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