“Real freedom is saying ‘no’ without giving a reason.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words
You have twenty-four hours in a day. You can choose to spend those hours creating things you truly care about, instead of dealing with insignificant matters, or struggling to prove your worth by doing the things that are hardest for you. Say “no” more often. Make fewer decisions so you have more power for your mission.
When I studied successful people’s life, I found that they all are demonstrated as one important key concept: being aware and honest about what was most important to them. It’s a simple concept but it is often a tough one to execute.
This can be achieved by firstly knowing about what matters most to you. Saying “no” to many things and focusing your attention and energy exclusively on the things that matter most to you. Now the second step is to determine who matters most to you.
This is a challenging question; it takes time to ask yourself and figure out proper logical answers. I learned a lot from Stewart, he made me aware of some uncomfortable truth of my life where I was wasting my energy. One of my core values, I realized, is continual self-improvement.
Sometimes thinking about what email should I reply, what social media must be checked etc. drain my energy before I even started on any important task. Fo this reason, I worked hard on my decision-making habit.
Lacking such a quality made me feel that I was not able to make the most effective decision for my businesses. This realization led me to set healthier decision-making habits for myself. I started writing a to-do list.
To prioritize this list, I ask myself which of the tasks has the potential to significantly change the outcome of my mission. After, practicing this habit for a while, I began to realize that the items on his to-do list weren’t critical.
By practicing this I grew so clear on what was important to me and my work that when opportunities arose it was easy for me to say yes or no without having negotiated an answer.
In 2010, a researcher in Israel studied how judges decide whether convicted criminal approved for parole. It was found that judges were using up their decision-making budget, also known as willpower. The idea of willpower partly related to know about the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a little C-shaped part of our brain.
Scientists believe that ACC is the seat of willpower. When we think about what I will wear today it draws some energy from willpower house, similarly, many other things like this draw energy and we face the deficiency of energy while taking an important decision.
Some game changers find that simply eliminating as many decisions as possible offer them more mental clarity. Meal and wardrobe decisions are two common ones utilize our willpower every day. Mark Zuckerberg has ten identical T-shirts in his closet. This saves Mark willpower about thinking about what he is going to wear today.
A similar case is with the meal. If you select five to six dishes for you then you no need to think about what you are going to eat today. This seems like small things, but these things have a good impact and save energy.
That you can use in making an important decision. When you use these techniques, you free up a tremendous amount of mental energy that you can use however you like. So yeah, Say “No” more often.
Summarized from the book “Game Changers: What Leaders, Innovators, and Mavericks Do To Win At Life” Ch:1 by Dave Asprey
