One of the Hardest Things is Saying No

     Along the road to reaching your goal there are many obstacles that get in the way. Social events, busy work, unforeseen events… Basically anything that keeps you from getting to where you want to be. To get to where you want to go, there will always be sacrifices to make along the way. That is not saying that you must abandon everything else and only focus on the one thing, but you need to be able to recognize when there is a choice that will work against you and your goal, or for you.

     For example, if you are trying to perform better at your sport or lose weight, there are things that will either directly help you or hinder you from reaching your goal. Socially, friends and family will want to go out to eat, get drinks, and stay out late. These are fun things to do, but they do not benefit you whatsoever in reaching that goal! Alcohol directly has a negative effect on your performance and not getting enough sleep does the same (but those are topics for a different day). Being in an environment that isn’t beneficial to reaching those goals puts up a road block. Living on a college campus for example doesn’t give someone the best food options to eat and perform well. The ones that are available are few and far between too. But there is always a parallel.

     I’m a firm believer in creating the environment that you want to be in. Taking the small steps in the right direction, developing habits, and putting systems in place to prevent obstacles from ever presenting themselves is something that anyone can do. The biggest step for me was creating a consistent schedule (semi-consistent at the moment) that would keep me honest with the goal I had set in mind. Sticking to it the best you can makes things automatically easier, even if you do deviate from it slightly. I’ve previously written about how I format my schedule in the post “Making Time, Being Consistent, and Having a Plan”. It’s not all about being strict and never having fun. There’s plenty of room for that too, but it is about trending in the right direction. Having a set schedule that you stick to prevents many of these things from coming up and people generally figure out that you aren’t available at certain times. This can be specific times that your train, study, sleep, meal prep, or whatever you need to do to make sure you are taking steps in the right direction to get to where you want to be.  

     Learning to say no is one of the hardest things to do. It’s hard telling people you don’t want to go out because you’d rather sleep and feel good the next day so you can be productive. Delaying instant gratification for something bigger you want to accomplish in the future is much more satisfying. It’s easy to look right in front of us and get caught up in what’s going on in that instant instead of looking further ahead. Having to say no, I’ve found, is something necessary to get to where you want to go. Look further ahead, recognize the present, and make the choice that best suits your goals.