Should've Said No

Good afternoon and welcome back to this afternoon's blog. Once again there very nearly wasn't an entry today due to a family emergency this morning, but I really enjoy writing and didn't want to let you guys down. I will apologise for making this a shorter blog as I didn't have as much time to plan and prepare. I assure you there will be a part 2 of this in the future. Before we get started, I hope you were all sensible over the weekend with the pubs re-opening and that you took my advice from Friday. Pub owners and bar staff have a very difficult job at the moment and we all need to play our part in making it easier for them, ensuring we all get served quicker.

Have you ever been in a situation where you are working on a job and people keep coming up to you saying "Can you do this" or "When you have a minute"? And all the time, instead of giving the honest answer that we are busy, we say yes. "Leave it on my desk and I'll see to it later" is a personal habit of mine. Don't get me wrong, I do this because I want to help the people I work with as much as I can. However, in a work place, everyone has to pull their own weight. We work in teams for a reason - achieving success and hitting targets for our company. One person does not make up a team. You can not do the work of lots of people. As the saying goes, there is no I in team.

You might think that offering to help people every minute of the day will earn you brownie points from your team. The truth is, it probably will. However, I see 3 main problems why this is not beneficial to a successful business. Firstly, you can easily get caught up with other people's work that you forget what is the most important - your own work. Managers and owners will look at individual performances. If you aren't meeting your individual performance goals then you open yourself up for some awkward questioning. Second, if you keep doing other people's work for them, then they might start to take advantage of you and bombard you every day with things they do not have time to do. You have to be straight up with people - it is your livelihood on the line, not just theirs. Third, and probably the most important, why add to your already hectic schedule? This will make you put more pressure on yourself to get the work done. You will work longer hours and therefore get less rest. You will see your family less and you might start getting stressed and feeling unwell. It's a job, not part of life. Your mental wellbeing and overall happiness is much more important than pleasing a few people at work.

It's a fact of life that no matter how perfect we try and be we are never going to please everyone or be friends with everyone. So what's the point even trying to be? You should never change who you are for the sake of trying to make somebody like you. They wouldn't do it for you. Always be yourself - that's my number 1 rule in life. As long as you are true to yourself then there's no reason for people not to like you (unless you're just not a nice person). And that applies to not helping everyone all the time. It doesn't mean you're being a bad person. It just means you're prioritising.

As much as we don't like to admit it, we all have to learn how to say no. It's such a short, simple word. 2 letters. 1 syllable. Reception children can write it. But it's one of the hardest words to say. And even more so than just saying it, we have to mean it. Don't be one of those push overs who say no then change your mind because you feel bad. Live your life. Do what is best for you. If you do that then you will be happy.

And for those of you wondering where the Taylor reference is today, it's in the title. It's also the last track on the Fearless album (do I get royalties for the promotion there Taylor?).

See you Friday where I promise a full length blog. And for those of you who know me, I never break my promises.

Connor

X