Prompt: Just Say No

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How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?

This is kind of an ambiguous question, at least for me, because I have a lot of goals. But by and large, most of my goals have to do with either learning new things, doing creative work in my free time, and advancing at work.

In the past four years I’ve always said “No” to things that got in the way of my … work goals. I’ve achieved a lot in that respect, and it’s definitely something to feel proud about.

The sad part is, I’ve always viewed my day job as a buffer in between what I actually want to do. I want to be one of those online creators, and for a while I was, and I was gaining steam. But life got in the way along with a myriad of other things.

It isn’t that I feel like I’m getting too old for it, because, for all intents and purposes, age doesn’t stop anyone from making a job out of creating online and turning that into a career.

What’s stopping me, is that I always say “No” to the things that might drive me closer to this particular goal. I say it because I’m tired, because I’m too exhausted, because I want to game, or spend my time outside of work relaxing and hanging out in Second Life. And it’s because of that, that I have a book I haven’t written for in months, a Second Life store I haven’t made anything for in an even longer period of time, a music career that hasn’t seen movement since I released an album months ago, and a “YouTuber” idea I have that I haven’t even remotely started yet.

Maybe this prompt was good, because I needed a reminder as to what my actual goal is. The real question is, can I stop saying “No?” I used to do what I wanted to do with my creative work whether I was tired or not, but over time that feeling of fatigue has only increased, and I worry it’s made me complacent in a state of non-movement.

That’s the real issue: Complacency.