IF IT’S NOT A HELL YES…

By Laura Wallace  |  November 02, 2017

The Internet tells me that the average adult makes 35,000 decisions a day. Think about all the little things we make decisions on internally every day…

• Should I have the water or the coke?
• Should I drink a second cup of coffee?
• Go to the bathroom or hold it?
• Wear a scarf or leave it at home?
• Listen to 90’s hip-hop or dance hits?
• Should I take the highway or the back road?

These are just a few of the decisions that I made this morning, and within a 20-minute timeframe. Multiply that by the 16 hours that we’re awake and you can see how quickly the number of decisions we make add up. Many of the decisions we make are subconscious, they’re small steps that lead us through our day. But there are also bigger decisions that impact our lives.

Think of all the things you say yes to with hesitation in your voice, knowing that you don’t really want to commit but you do for the fear that you’ll let someone down. How many of these sound familiar?

• Joined a board or committee, knowing you don’t have enough time or energy
• Agreed to go hang out with someone, even if you didn’t really want to
• Chose an outfit because it fit in better, even though you didn’t like it
• Offered to help someone, even though you can’t get through your own stuff
• Took on a project even when you knew it wasn’t a good fit

We agree to do a lot of things, even when we know we shouldn’t. We overwork ourselves to please other people. And while going the extra mile to lend someone a hand or make a difference has a positive ripple effect, they should be reserved for the things that matter most, not your daily decisions.

Think about all the things you’re doing – commitments, boards, routines, habits, etc. Ask yourself, when you say yes to these things, do you have a positive reaction? Do you think, “hell yes!” when you agree to do these things? My friends, if it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no. You have limited time on this earth as it is. Why spend a large chunk of it doing things that drain you?

I like to use the “hell yes” rule to everything I make decisions about. This could be clients we’re taking on, places to travel, what organizations to get involved in or how many meetings I schedule in a day. Anytime you’re making a decision about something that affects your time and energy, ask yourself, is this a hell yes? If you hesitate, aren’t sure or simply don’t feel connected to it, your answer is allowed to be no. You don’t have to do things to please other people. Invest your time in the things that matter most to you. When you do, you feel more fulfilled, more relaxed and can go to bed knowing that you took control over your time.