Find a Way to Say Yes

We all know we’re surrounded with no's, negativity, and naysayers. All news seems to be bad news. We read it, hear it, see it, and feel it. Without anything to combat this spiraling social paradigm, we can become skeptical, cynical, and distrusting. Maybe you realize you’ve fallen prey to this attitude. “They” have gotten to you. You tried but couldn’t beat’em. So you gave in and joined’em. Or maybe you’re holding on by a thread, holding out hope. Believe me, I get it.

Yet, wherever you find yourself today on the scale from hopeful to hopeless, let’s look at finding a way to create positivity in our lives. Not a denial of reality or a stick-your-head-in-the-sand move, but an intentional decision to work at bringing out the best in all circumstances.

I heard no from my earliest memories until my self-proclaimed emancipation from my stepmother as a young adult. Since then, I’ve had to constantly fight back my past to make the choice to say yes in my present. And hear the yes. To change my life and the lives of those with whom I have the privilege of working.

Depending on our personality, we can often feel like other people deserve the yes but we don’t. Or the reverse, we feel we always deserve the yes and don’t think about giving the yes to others. This principle works best in a bundle, as a package deal.

Every day, at epidemic levels, people want to be forgiven for millions while they collect their thousand. Or they refuse the thousand for others while collecting their million. But then there are the ones who give a yes and get a yes. That’s who I want to be. That’s who we should all strive to be.

We have to understand that it’s not about the amount of money or the size of the opportunity but about looking for ways to say yes and bless others. The benefits of proactively seeking out how you can find the yes in your life—to both give and receive—will offer a far more positive perspective as well as create a rewarding and satisfying life in all respects.

God, in a world of negativity, show me how I can say yes to someone today, even if I’ll have to make a sacrifice to say yes.