Whenever I start something you might say I get a bit carried away, and so when I got interested in coaching, I started reading a lot of books by coaches. And last time I was at my version of shopping nirvana: the best Trader Joe's in Washington state which just happens to be right next to a very pedestrian but excellently stocked discount/remainder bookstore, I scored the audiobook version of Cheryl Richardson's Take Time for Your Life. It had some good stuff and a bit of schlock, as one would expect, but it had one brilliant gem of a simple idea:
If it's not an absolute yes, it's a no.
For anyone who has tendencies to indecisive procrastination like me*, this was a revelation. So simple. And it works in so many situations - saving me time, saving me money, saving me from unnecessary stress. I use it all the time now when I'm feeling uncertainty about a decision - I will ask myself, "Is this an absolute yes?"
No more pieces of clothing in my closet that I'll never wear. No more agreeing to put on professional development workshops that I don't care to. No more hanging onto things that are cluttering my house. No more going skiing with my husband and then being miserable the whole time cause it's cold and windy and then blaming him the whole way down for dragging me up the mountain when it was clearly my choice to go.
Not that that last one has ever happened.
(*For those of you familiar with Meyers-Briggs, I'm an ENFP)
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