 I used to have much less discernment when it comes to two of the most important words in our vocabulary, which are yes and no. I tended to say yes to almost everything because I inherently was a people pleaser and you know going through a couple of years of therapy has helped uncover the fact that I was a people pleaser to mask certain insecurities and I had this need for everybody to like me and everyone to want me and everyone to think I'm cool so I figured saying yes would increase the odds they'd feel that way so I would just say yes to everything and now I've realized that that I need to protect my time and that you can say no with professionalism and tact and manners but if what the person is asking you to do for them is not an alignment with who you're trying to become or with your north star then you owe it to yourself and those that you care about to say no you have to guard your yard and protect your time and I'm getting much better at that I'm certainly not coming from a place of mastery but I'm making improvements and I do better with saying no today than I've done at any other previous time in my life and that is that has allowed me to be more intentional with where I place my intention with how I build my schedule in my life and with allowing me the freedom to keep restoring my energy so learning to say no is one of the most important things we can do and and it's never easy some days I'm pretty good at it other days I find myself resorting back to that people pleasing mentality but I that's when I give myself some grace and just figure okay here's another chance to improve an area of my life