30 Promises: Day 1

Day 1: I promise to say yes to opportunities this week.

Remember that movie Yes Man, with Jim Carrey? It’s a poor man’s Liar Liar, where Carrey does yeoman’s work as a lawyer who cannot tell a lie. Well, in Yes Man he is a bank associate who cannot say anything other than “yes” to anyone who asks him a questin. That means he gets in all sorts of trouble, from giving loans to people who have no business getting loans, to giving all his money to transients. It’s kind of funny in a sort of hokey way, but I like it for some reason. Because even though it’s silly there is a moral to it.

Too often I say “no” to things, and to people. Opportunities come and go, and probably half of the time I say no, but these are generally opportunities that are good for me. Why don’t I say yes more often? If I truly think about it, it’s usually not the opportunities themselves that get me hamstrung. It’s usually the doubt that I have in myself and in my own capabilities. I need to change that way of thinking. I need to be more like a real life Yes Man, but without giving all my money to transients.

So, this week my first promise to myself is to say yes to those opportunities that are good for me, to the ones that I would usually decline because of the doubt in my own mind. We hold ourselves back way too often when we are qualified for doing whatever it is that is asked of us. I know I do. But not this week. That is my first promise. Hold me to it.

Sam