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Transcript

The Price of Saying "Yes" · The Daily Writer

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer, where we share a lesson each day to help you build the habits for writing success.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: A few weeks ago, I said no to an amazing opportunity to help writers.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: This was an opportunity to partner with an entrepreneur that I greatly respect.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a person who has been very influential in my life over the past eight or ten years.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: He was one of the first people to help me see that I could make a living with my writing, and I've read his books and listened to his podcasts for years.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: This opportunity would have let me help more people, expand my influence, and spend more time with other people that I highly respect.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: So why did I say no to this?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer is pretty simple.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have the bandwidth to do a good job in this role.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right now I'm working on several ghostwriting projects.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm leading my daily writer community.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm creating this podcast, which is a daily show, of course.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm working also on a couple of my own books.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Also, this is my son's senior year of high school.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to graduate in a few months.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm definitely in time preservation mode since he's going to be out of the house and living on his own before too long.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, anytime you say yes to one thing, you're also saying no to a hundred other things.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Time is not infinite.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: You only have so much of it.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure that you're saying yes to the right things for your season of life.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you'll have to pass up amazing opportunities because the timing isn't right.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: But you've got to respect your existing commitments and realistically assess whether you can add something else to your plate.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: In the case of the opportunity that I mentioned a minute ago, it was really important that I be able to do a good job if I committed to doing what I was asked to do for that role.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality was that it would be something that I was just squeezing into my schedule, just trying to do the bare minimum instead of really giving it my best effort.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I have too much respect for the person that was offering me the opportunity and too much respect for other writers to give it a half-hearted effort.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that you feel the same way.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you say yes to something, make sure that you can do it well.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Commit to a few things and put your full effort into those.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're free to say no to everything else.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your daily question: what do you need to say no to in order for you to say yes to the most important things?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been listening to this show for any length of time, you know that one of the four practices of a great writer is creativity.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to stay creative, you've got to have great input.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where writing prompts come in.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: A writing prompt is a sentence or two that helps you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Writing prompts are an awesome creative tool for journaling, storytelling, creative writing, stress relief, social media posts, and so much more.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the great news is that you don't have to create these yourself.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: We've put together an amazing package of 365 daily writing prompts.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: So every day for the next year, you can have a shot of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out at dailywriterlife.comslash writing prompts.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.