John Kenny argues that saying no to requests that don't serve your well-being isn't selfish, it's necessary. Constantly prioritizing others leads to unhappiness. Saying no is really saying yes to yourself.
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And something that also comes up a lot with my clients is the ability to say no. We all need to learn how to say no when it suits us. There are various ways we can go about that, and there's some of the things I do cover in my coaching about the kind of ways that we can learn to say no. But if it's not good for you, it's okay to say no. It's okay to say, this isn't good for me to do, and therefore I'm not going to do it. And I guess it's really important that we learn to practice saying no when it doesn't suit our needs, when it's going to cause us a certain amount of unhappiness or distress if we're always putting the needs of others before our own. And no is a very important word. Lesson to learn. It's like saying no to others but yes to yourself.