I’ve come to the realization that I’m a “yes” person, but not in the way you think. A “yes” person is normally a person defined as someone who says yes to everything, whether it be a favor, a new club, a job, some sort of opportunity or event, etc. That’s not exactly me. I’m the type of person who has a lot of varied interests and has to be involved in every single one of those interests.

I love life and living it to it’s fullest, which causes me to say yes to every opportunity in everything I’m interested in. I read a lot of articles about “yes” people, mostly from those who don’t define themselves as one, giving us advice on why it’s okay to say no sometimes or how to balance our time. But the thing with my type of “yes” person is that this is what makes us happy. We want to be surrounded by the things and people we love all the time, and honestly there’s nothing to be ashamed about that. Here are a five signs you are this type of yes person.

1. Lists on lists on lists. I’m serious, being a “yes” person goes hand in hand with being a list person. If you haven’t tried it, do it. Lists are my life. I have lists on four sticky’s on my Mac, I have lists in the Notes App on my iPhone, lists in all my school notebooks, on my desk, anywhere you turn is a new list. It sounds overwhelming, but once you develop your own note taking system, they are life savers. You can’t rely on your overwhelmed brain for everything.
2. You have trouble sleeping. Okay, I know this is a very generic point, but there’s only one reason you have trouble sleeping: you don’t know how to turn your brain off. My brain runs at a million miles per hour for what seems like 24 hours of the day. I have thoughts on everything I’m involved in, things I have to get done tomorrow, things I forgot to do today, etc. Usually I have to take some sort of sleeping pill to help slow my brain down, but if you don’t have access to that, making lists help a lot, too. You can just pour your brain out on a sheet of paper.
3. You’re usually pretty modest. One of the worst questions to ask you is, “what are you involved in?” This list could seriously go on for over 10-15 minutes. You don’t like to throw your “busy-ness” into other people’s faces because, well, sometimes you’re a little embarrassed of how much you do. Not that you should be embarrassed, but when you start listing things out, it looks a little ridiculous and you tend to get a lot of eye rolls. Believe me, I get it.
4. You value your time. The schedule you make for each day (and let’s be honest, your life is your iCal app on your phone) is something you need to stick to and when something or someone runs late, you can’t help but get annoyed. You try to make the most of each and every hour you have free, and fill it with an activity, homework or something else productive (like doing that dirty laundry that’s been sitting there for a week).
5. You truly do want to say yes to every amazing opportunity. And you usually do say yes, but not after a long thought (and maybe a call to Mom or Dad) deciding whether or not you think you can handle something else. It can be kind of a hard assessment. Yes, I’m involved in a lot of activities but I always find down time where I feel like I could be more productive, which causes me to want to add more to my plate.

So, if you're nodding your head and saying yes to all of these reasons, you're most definitely a "yes" person.