Saying No To Good Things

You're listening to The Uppercase Life where we're not just doing good things. We're doing great things. And I'm your host, Joseph Brewster. If you are anything like me, there's a lot of things you want to do in the world. Can you relate to that sentiment? I have sometimes felt like if I had five lifetimes, I still couldn't accomplish all the cool things that I'd really love to try to create, to experience.
There's so much. And on the one hand, that feels like a positive thing. It feels great to look at the world and think of all the potential amazing experiences I could have. On the other hand, sometimes that's intimidating because I also feel like I'll never get to do all that. Or maybe I feel like I can't do that because I'm being forced to do something else which is less desirable.
And it's true that for each thing you are doing, there is something else you are not doing that is called opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the idea that in order to commit yourself to one thing, you are saying no to another thing and recognizing this trade off is a small step toward making better choices. As someone who is an intentional optimist, I think that at any given time there are a number of really good things I could be doing.
It's really hard for me to say no to some things I like because I feel like, Well, I really want to do this thing and I really want to do that thing, but I can't do them all. However, one way of looking at it is I can do the highest value thing. And what I'm not looking for in the world is something which is simply good to do because there's an endless number of good to do things.
I want to know what is the best thing I could be doing now? I can almost hear some of you out there saying, But isn't this going to lead to me overthinking? And then I'm going to constantly be second guessing whether the thing I'm doing right now is actually the best thing or not. So let me clarify that.
What I'm not saying right here is that you need to deeply consider every single decision in your life to see if there is like some bigger and better thing you should be doing. No, what I'm saying is, with that simple change of thinking, recognizing that I'm not just looking for a good thing to be doing, I'm estimating what is the highest value thing that I could be doing in that moment.
And I am going to have to be willing to say no to a lot of good things, a lot of other good things that I'm not going to do because I'm doing this one even better thing. That is a really freeing feeling, because sometimes when we recognize that an opportunity is good, we almost feel obligated to do it simply by virtue of the fact that it is good to do.
And yeah, I appreciate that. I love that the world is so full of cool things we could do. But you will need to say no to doing good things if you're going to do great things, which means that you're going to have to know why you are saying yes to the things you're saying. That means having a really close connection with your own personal values.
You're going to need a high awareness of what your own strengths are. And above all, and this is the hardest part for me. You're going to have to be willing to say no to good things and good people so that you can say yes to other, even better things. I'd love to hear your feedback on this. When was a time you gave up doing something good so that you could do something even better?
Drop me a line at [email protected]. And if you enjoyed this, consider sharing it with someone who you feel like needs to hear this. And until next time. Live like it matters.