In today’s world, the need to please everyone around you is usually a strong one, especially for kids and young adults. As you grow up, you want to prove yourself in the world, and many times, people confuse proving yourself with trying to please people. While it is nice to be able to make others happy, sometimes, making yourself happy gets overlooked. This is why being able to say no is an important ability to have as you get older, because sometimes, as much as you would like to please everyone, your own personal happiness should be put ahead of other people’s.
I know that personally, saying "no" was always a challenge for me growing up. As a kid, I liked to stay busy, and because of that, I had a lot of commitments that demanded my time and attention. There would be weeks at a time that I would be so busy that I barely had time to sleep or just stop and take a breather. At first, I liked my life like that, but as soon as I hit high school, I was burnt out. The increased work load from school combined with keeping up with the same activities as before took an awful toll on me, and I basically shut down. After that, I went from loving to be busy all of the time to not wanting to do anything. If I had been able to say "no" when I was unable to handle everything on my plate, that more than likely would not have happened to me, and I could have continued the things that were most important to me instead of quitting them.
Even though I wish that had not happened, it was an important lesson for me, and one that I am very grateful for now. I think learning how to say "no" is important for everyone, especially in your college years. This is such an important time in your life and what you do now is going to shape your future in a lot of ways. During this time, you should only be doing what helps you succeed, whether that’s school and internships or getting a job so that you can support yourself through this process. When people inevitably begin demanding more and more from you, you have to say no if it is interfering with your happiness and your goals. Achieving what you want for your future is not going to happen unless you are fully committed to what you are doing, and being able to say no to things that will get in the way of you succeeding is going to help you a lot.
As important as saying "no" can be sometimes, it is also important to be able to take "no" for an answer. In life, you are not always going to be able to get your way, so it is essential to know how to deal with that. Whether this happens in your personal or professional life, you need to learn how to accept it, especially when there is nothing you can do to stop it. Some of the most successful people in the world were told "no" several times before they were able to achieve their dreams, so hang in there. You never know what a "no" will become.
