That's right, no means no. I'm here to tell you that saying no is not necessarily a bad thing. I think we all can agree on the fact that people have boundaries. It is important that we respect those boundary lines and not cross them. How would you like it if someone wouldn't take no for an answer? It would be extremely difficult to reason with them, right? People are stubborn these days and want to be in control of things that aren't remotely close to their situation. There is a difference between listening to someone talk versus hearing them out. Today, people have difficulty hearing the whole story first and instead respond with a form of retaliation or defensiveness.
I personally think that you shouldn't have to say yes to something that makes you uncomfortable. You shouldn't have to change how you feel about something or someone in order to make others happy. At the end of the day, it is YOUR choice and YOUR life. No one should have a say in it and no one should cloud your own personal judgement.
I think people forget to do this. People forget that their opinion matters the absolute most over others. There is a difference between seeing things in an open, objective perspective versus letting people make the decisions for you. Always remember that we are becoming adults, if not we already are adults. We need to make decisions on our own and let people inspire us to become better. At the end of the day, we make up our minds and we have the final say. It is hard to say no when we are peer pressured into doing things we don't want to do.
You shouldn't have to let someone pick and choose your battles. That is where I will call them a "control freak" or a "bad friend." You shouldn't be passive aggressive towards people either. You are in control with the majority of your actions and you should be able to decide right from wrong. With that being said, it is important that we talk things out in order to get some sort of clarity in a situation. We should be able to have our own voice and speak for ourselves, rather than let people define our decision making for us.
It is okay to deny things, especially if we are working on ourselves. At the end of the day, we call the shots and we are trying to better ourselves. Just because you say no, doesn't mean it's a no forever. If that's the case, then so be it. We have to respect each other's boundary lines. Do not give into peer pressure and go with your gut feeling. If people get offended, calmly tell them your reasoning and if they are unwilling to accept it, then move on. It's really that simple.
