In this informal live session, life and business strategist Charlie Hugh‑Jones shares a personal story about how his Monday morning yoga practice taught him the strategic value of saying “no.” He explains that saying no creates the mental and physical space needed to focus on what truly matters, both at the macro level (blocking out work emails, social media, and client requests) and the micro level (quieting internal thoughts during yoga). Charlie links this practice to broader concepts of boundary‑setting, integrating intuition with intellect, and building resilience for high‑performers. He highlights how a disciplined morning routine can boost concentration, confidence, and decision‑making throughout the day. The talk concludes with calls to action: a forthcoming webinar on morning routines, his YouTube channel, website, and an offer for a free 30‑minute strategy session.
Chapters
Oh, hi everybody, it's Charlie Hugh-Jones here. How you doing this Monday morning? You can see I didn't get dressed up for this Monday morning live for you. I'm still in my gym gear, my yoga gear, because I just wanted to get this to you right away as I was thinking about it. I've just come back from yoga. It's coming up to 11:30 Eastern Standard Time. I wanted to talk today about the power of no. Yesterday on Father's Day, I I did a Facebook Live about how sometimes Father's Day, or situations like that, are never perfect for us, and they may raise all sorts of feelings. We have pains, we have hurt, we have frustrations, and The Power of Now is about how do you focus on appreciating the present, rather than looking at the then, what happened to us then, what wasn't enough then, who wasn't around then. And always living in the future, the pain of always going, well, if only, when that happens, when that happens in the future, but being able to acknowledge your emotions and be present. Today, that was the power of now I was talking about. Today, I want to talk about the power of no. One of the most powerful words in our strategic arsenal is no, and It was fascinating in yoga this morning that this lesson was being retaught to me. We talk of yoga as a practice. We're never gonna be perfect. We practice. We're never gonna be perfect. We improve, because we're looking for growth. And this morning, I made a very definite choice. I do every morning. A lot of the time, there's pressure on a Monday to hustle, to get in there, to go full speed, to absolutely kill it right from— 8 o'clock. The morning bell, however you want to call it, for you as a high performer. I've chosen that the first thing on my Monday mornings, after my morning routine, after I've sorted through my inbox, I'm going to go and do yoga. Now, yoga is a very different practice for me than when I used to do circuit training, or PX90, or CrossFit, something high intensity. Yoga is a lot more calm. There is stillness. There is space. And quiet, and that actually raises a whole load of issues. You see, our body is absolutely wired to take in millions and millions of sensations and senses from our sight, from our hearing, from our touch, from our sense of smell, and the brain is processing stuff all the time, millions and millions of sensory inputs. And it has to choose. It has to be very deliberate on what it focuses on, otherwise it's going to be overwhelmed. And as I was in yoga, which is a practice of understanding oneness, which is around how do we harness and work with the body? How do we harness and work with the mind? How do we harness and work with our spirit and our emotions and bringing them into a form of balance so that we can be one? That was a lesson for me this morning in The Power of No, because In order for me to focus this morning, I had to say no to everything else that was demanding my attention. The responses to Facebook I needed to give, the posts on Instagram, the emails that had come in about new clients who wanted to work with me. And I have a set system where I say I'm going to deal with those. And then this morning I had to make space for yoga, my 90-minute practice. Within yoga itself, again, a smaller lesson. In order to focus on My body on getting the most out of it. And it's a really intense workout. Energy is created, heat is created, my body is toned, my concentration is focused. In order to do that, I have to switch off. I have to say no to the thoughts that are coming in, the sounds from the car. And these are amplified because yoga, as opposed to PX90 or CrossFit with blaring music and someone shouting at you to move on to the next thing within 60 seconds, which doesn't give you a time to stop and breathe and reflect. Yoga's the opposite. You're in the midst of this silence with all this sensory input, and you have to choose what you pay attention to. So the macro scale was I'd chosen this morning to check out from the work that I was doing and the other things, to be able to focus and spend this time, to say no, put barriers around this, to do my yoga. And then within yoga, again, the same truth, the same lesson, the same wisdom was applying. In order to focus on my practice, I needed to say no to the thoughts that were coming up. And no isn't about burying them, hiding them. It's about accepting them and then letting them go. Let them pass through and then let them go. So that was just a quick thing this morning about the power of no. No is one of the most strategically powerful words that allows you to focus on what matters most. So I'm gonna do a post soon. There's gonna be one about my morning routine, because how do I set myself up for the day? There's a webinar coming, folks, so you'll be first to hear about that. Check out charliehughjones.com. Like this, my Facebook page. Get in touch with me by private message if you want to know more. But that webinar is coming up about the power of a morning routine to unlock more energy, more focus throughout the day, not just first thing in the morning. And my saying no this morning to yoga allows me to practice something which increases my concentration, increases my power to be present. Increases the certainty and confidence I have in the decisions I'm going to make during the day going after that. But I have to make space to be able to do it. I have to say no, put boundaries around it so that I can practice. And one of the things I learned today, one of the things I've been working on during the course of the last few weeks is integrating my intuition, what I just know, my gut feeling, the, the, the essential self that doesn't think but knows things with my intellect. the power of my brain, because often I'm in my head, I'm trying to make decisions, I'm trying to weigh things up a lot. And, um, what's interesting in yoga is that I've been finding recently that left side of my body— and you know your brain is wired, the right-hand side of your brain, the thinking brain, the rational side of the brain, some people conceive of it that way— and the left side of my body has been quite stiff. And my brain's been getting in the way of a lot of things, like doing Facebook Lives. And I'm noticing that that is showing up in my body as more stiffness on the left than on the right. So, I'm working on that because I want to integrate my intuition with my intellect so that my decision-making process, my optimal decision-making process, where I focus my energy, where I give my time, how I judiciously use the power of my no, I have more confidence in. And it also helps build resilience. So, the yoga practice, by saying no to the rush of the morning, everything that we've got to get done, To do that this morning gave me some insight and allowed me to practice something in my body, which was helping me manage this integration piece so that I can go and make decisions more effectively. So that's all I wanted to say. The power of no. It's one example. There's a ton of other things, resources on my YouTube channel about making great decisions, about resilience, about managing your reactions to anything. So go check that out as well. That's youtube.com/CharlieHughJones, or you can get on my website, charliehughjones.com, or just stay right here on my Facebook page. As you can see, it's a little bit informal today. I just wanted to get this to you right now while it was fresh. I hope you check out my other Facebook Lives. Maybe this week there's going to be one every day. So let's just check out, just wait and see for that, hey, as I share new thoughts and new thinking that's coming up at the moment. So that's it from me, Charlie Hugh-Jones. I'm a life and business strategist. I help high performers and entrepreneurs unlock an even better version, a more, sometimes more conscious version of themselves so that they can be more productive so that they can feel more purposeful so that they can enjoy more resilience and be more connected to those people that matter to them. And I do this because that was my journey. So if you want to find out more about that, check out my website, charliehughjones.com. Why not even book a free 30-minute strategy session with me just to see exactly where you are, Get a clearer understanding of where you want to be and get some initial steps to move towards it right away. That's it for me. Thank you for checking this Facebook Live. If you weren't with me live, thank you for those who were here live. If you weren't here with me live and you're checking this out in the replay, great to see you too. I hope this is of some use to you. Just remember that little thing that today we were talking about the power of no. Why not reflect on a little bit of where no has been helpful in your journey? Recently. And if you've got anything to say about it, share it in the comments below. And if this video in any way has reached you or has resonated with you in any way, please share it with people. That's it for me. Great to see you. Until I see you in one of my training courses or as one of my private, private clients, bye for now.
