The Magic of Saying NO

Let's start off with a quick win. Learn the magic of the following word, and that word is no. If you want to be successful at achieving better work life balance, you've absolutely got to learn the art of saying no. Now you may think, well, T.J. i can't say no to the boss. He'll fire me, my career will be over. You've got to learn how to say no in certain parts of your life. Let's say you can't. You're brand new young employee and you got to say yes to everything. Okay, maybe. But they're going to be parts of your personal life that need a no. Occasionally, you may have an extra neighbor who one time ask you to mow their lawn. Okay, you do as a favor. But if they ask you to do it every week, or they want you to do all their shopping, or a family member who wants you to do all of their housework, you have to learn how to say no. And as your career progresses, you need to learn how to say no as well. Because every organization has one of those people that everyone else knows. Oh, Jimmy will do it. I don't want to stay late. Let's ask Jimmy to do it. Yes, you want a reputation of being someone who is cooperative, innovative, hard working. But if you're the person who says yes to every single request, you become the dumping ground and you lose your work life balance. You're helping other people with their work life balance. And sure it's fine to help other people from time to time. I don't want to make it sound like I want you to be completely selfish person. But if you want to achieve a better work life balance, you do have have to become selfish at some point. You can't just say yes to the boss who says, hey, well did you move to Zimbabwe for the next two years? Even though you don't really want to live there and your family doesn't want to live there and you have no friends there, sometimes you have to learn to say no.