During one section of FINDERS KEEPERS, the main character, Jason Medley, realizes during his backpacking trip through Europe that he has been a serious NO person his entire life, and is finally struggling to become a YES person. A NO person, at least in my eyes, is someone with an instinct to say NO to new ideas, to possibilities?and then refrains from experiencing them. A YES person is the opposite.
Much like Jason, up until at least my mid-20s, I was mostly a NO person. Regardless of the During one section of FINDERS KEEPERS, the main character, Jason Medley, realizes during his backpacking trip through Europe that he has been a serious NO person his entire life, and is finally struggling to become a YES person. A NO person, at least in my eyes, is someone with an instinct to say NO to new ideas, to possibilities?and then refrains from experiencing them. A YES person is the opposite.
Much like Jason, up until at least my mid-20s, I was mostly a NO person. Regardless of the reasons, I had extreme tendencies to be negative, pessimistic and defeatist. I also complained. A lot. Much of that had to do with the fact that I had no faith in the cosmos. I had no belief?or very little confidence?that if I did my best and kept an open mind, good things would start to happen.
Here?s one of my favorite examples:
When I was college, around 1991, my fraternity (again, no judging) held a car wash, with most of the money set to go to a local charity. So about a dozen of us set up near the student parking lot, and had buckets and rags and sponges, and put up a few banners for $3 per car. (Maybe it was $5; who remembers?).
After about an hour, we made something like $6. And there I was, bitching and kvetching up a storm. ?This sucks,? ?we?re screwed,? ?we?re never gonna make any money,? ?what a waste.? These were just some of the many phrases?many NO phrases?that I spouted off, one after the other after the other. Finally (and thankfully), someone told me to stick a cork in it.
I did.
And you know what? The cars finally started coming. We made money. All in all, we had a very successful car wash. Is it coincidence that business picked up almost immediately after I shut my trap and stopped complaining? Who knows? But the irony sure isn?t lost on me.
This was almost 15 years ago, when I was still a world-class NO person, in serious NO mode. Today, I consider myself to be a very solid YES person, with my share of NO tendencies I haven’t conquered yet.
I feel like I?ve done fairly OK since those heavy NO days, but the change didn?t happen overnight. I had to work at. I still have to work at it, although being a YES person is much more instinctive for me now?and a lot more fun. If anything, I spend a decent amount of time trying to help today?s NO people become future YES people. Sometimes a NO person just needs a little YES encouragement.
So the next time you find yourself bitching up a storm just because the car wash of your life isn?t going quite as well as you hoped … be patient, have faith and have fun. Say YES.
You just never know what?s waiting for you.
Post edited by: rcolchamiro, at: 2007/01/25 09:38
Post edited by: rcolchamiro, at: 2007/02/15 16:47
