Are You Saying Yes When Stressed?

You are working on something and you are feeling stressed.

You’re not so stressed that you are worried you are not going to get it done, but you are stressed enough that you can feel it in your body and you are super focussed and working hard.

Someone comes to your door and asks you to do something like review their presentation.

You say yes, send it to me and I’ll do it.

They leave.

You are glad they left.

And, then you realize you have just created more work for yourself when you said yes.

What just happened?

One, we kind of want the person to go away because we are focussed and working hard on accomplishing something.

I think we also say yes, especially when we are stressed because it’s more automatic for us to say yes, and our brain is like – can’t think, stressed, do what’s easiest, just say yes.

to say no, requires more effort and so we just say yes.

When we say yes, this leads to more stress and more work leading to working in time off. 

What can we do instead?

We have to have the awareness that we are doing it – saying yes, without really thinking about it.

Then we can slow things down and kindly ask for what we need (for them to go away) instead of saying yes.   

And, practice saying no more often so that it becomes more automatic.

If you want help saying no, so that you can feel less stress and stop overwork before you burnout, email me at support@melissaeanders.com and let’s get started.