The Power Of No

When it hits 36 degrees (Celsius) in June, your desire to do any yard work drops significantly.

As a result, our yard has been left to its own devices for almost 3 months -- not including the steadfast work of our robotic lawnmower.

We have over 3000 square meters of yard, which isn't flat, and needs a lot of weed whacking in addition to regular lawn mowing.

Add to that the empty lot next to us, which never gets tended, and has a creep that continues to encroach on our side.

Yesterday, when I asked my husband about playing pickleball in the afternoon he responded, "What about the yard?"

During lunch, we had a conversation about what it would be like to sell the house and move to an apartment, where there would be no yard to take care of.

Our good friends have such a space, and a lovely view of the sea from their rooftop terrace.

Yet, I love our yard, and the sense of expansiveness it gives me.

The view of the mountains, reminding me of my smallness in the face of it all.

The depth of the canyon I can barely glimpse, evoking the power of movement and the strength of water to carve.

In the end, I skipped the pickleball, donned my weed whacking attire and stepped out into the sunshine to tend to my why, as I tended to the yard.

Later this month, I am hosting a 2 hour workshop for a client that we have aptly named "The Power of No : Mastering Priorities for Impact"

During our time together, we'll be exploring some of the big ideas in the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown, around aligning ourselves to our essential intent, as well as setting priorities to ensure that you are doing the right things, rather than more things.

I'll also layer in ideas from Managing Up by Melody Wilding and The Book of Boundaries by Melissa Urban, because sometimes we do need to say no, not just to ourselves, but to other people.

This is always tricky.

I look forward to facilitating this deep dive into the power of no with this group. Thank you, Gary N., for inviting me back again.

As you can see from my picture, I did end up saying no to pickleball and said yes to yard work instead.

My desire to live in an expansive yard was more of a priority than playing pickleball.

Do you struggle to say no? What's behind that struggle?

Feel free to share below. 👇

Originally posted on LinkedIn with comments.

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