Saturday, December 20, 2008

PostHeaderIcon Change of View: Being a Yes instead of a No

Life, as we know, is full of possibilities and the permutations of life are nearly infinite. However, a lot of opportunities in our lives are mainly dictated by our own willingness to agree (or disagree) to a path. That is to say, by being a yes, doors (whether good or bad) are opened and you become exposed to experiences that you would have deprived yourself had you been a no.

For instance, most people consider that jumping out of a perfectly functional plane and plummeting towards the ground at terminal velocity is a reckless "sport" and quite foolish. Yet it's one of the most thrilling and exciting experiences that I've ever had. In a similar fashion, the first experience I had of riding/driving a moped (it was not powerful enough to qualify as a motorcycle) on steep grades of a particular cliffy road in Ko Samui, Thailand was terrifying yet satisfying on a personal level of having fun and of achieving something you've never done before.

Moreover, there's something to be said about the confidence a yes brings over a no. In the simplest of terms, a yes is a risk and thus would put you as a risk taker. Now it is safe to say that not all risks are equal but as the idiom goes: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

And while this idiom is used many times in business, it seems to apply equally well to social interactions as well. Specifically, in regards to my fellow men, our perspective is that we need to step up and be a Yes instead of a No. We need to collectively discard our reservations about rejections and initiate interaction. There's no doubt that things can go horribly wrong but by the same token there is no guarantee that by waiting things will ever come to be.

Furthermore, there are very few exceptions when the "timing is not right" excuse is valid. In fact, let's throw out all the excuses we make for ourselves and move forward. For the worst scenario is that she becomes the one is the No instead of a Yes and that is her lost, not yours. Whereas the best scenario? Two "Yesses" is a world of possibilities waiting to be discovered.

-C

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

If only you had asked me sooner.

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