How To Say No To Someone Without Feeling Guilty

To fill up their daily planner…and I mean fill it up…is because, if you really think about it…that’s real life. Try to remember when you last had time to just sit and do nothing.

No laundry to do, no cooking, no housework. Everything in your life was caught up.

Many Times People Leave Time Spaces Blank

Thinking they don’t want to be rushed. The purpose of filling in your daily schedule fully isn’t to ensure that you end up being rushed rather it’s because that’s how life is. By filling in the blanks with tasks it simply means you are deciding how and where and on what you’ll be spending your time. Not whatever life happens to throw at you.

However, Filling In Those Blanks

Enables you get more work done, spend more time with your family, and (in my case) get that reading done.

So you’ve fill in your daily and, hopefully weekly, schedule and you get a request for something…say, to volunteer somewhere. What do you do? You really don’t want to but you know you’ll feel guilty if you don’t agree to do whatever it is.

In this article I’m going to show you how to say “No” to someone without feeling guilty.

First, it’s important to understand that saying that little two letter word, in and of itself, is not difficult…not one bit. In fact, I would guess that 99.9% of us have the physical ability to perform this action. All we have to do is put the tip of our tongue against the top of our mouth, form our lips into somewhat of a circle, and let the sound escape at the same time as we’re lowering our tongue. What causes the problem with us being able to perform the (actually very simple) act of letting that word escape from our mouth is the resultant feeling of guilt.

But, Why Do We Feel Guilty?

It’s because of a few reasons such as:

1. We don’t want to feel we’ve disappointed someone

2. We want to be liked

3. We want to be thought well of

It’s Really Quite Simply

If you think about it. In order to say “No” to something you don’t want to do anyway you simply look at your alternative activity.

If you’ve filled in time for your work, family, and self then look at the time slot that person wants to fill. Is it a time you have dedicated to family time? Then look at the 3 reasons listed above and ask yourself these questions:

1. Who would I rather disappoint-This person or my family?

2. Who would I most want to be liked by-This person or my family?

3. Who do I want to think the best of me-This person or my family?

Here It Is Boiled Down To Its Essence…

You’re going to be disappointing someone. If your schedule is filled out and you’ve planned family time and time for yourself then it should be easy for you to say, “I’m sorry, my schedule is already full” and truly mean it. You’re not lying…it really is.

If you don’t proactively manage your time…many times someone else will manage it for you. For any time management plan to succeed in your life you must be the one in charge of it.