A key to creating career and personal success is to realize that in order to live your mission, there are many things in which you have to say “no”.

If you have worked through the Power of 3 Worksheet, you will notice that there is a section for you to note three things that you need to stop doing in order to live your mission.

I think these things we need to say “no” to come in two categories:

1. Bad habits- Things like not exercising, eating unhealthy, drinking too much, playing Candy Crush for four hours a day (I haven’t tried it yet, I’m afraid my semi-addictive personality will lead me to end up being one who plays it four hours a day!), etc. These things keep us for being our best selves and distract us at the least and prohibit us at the most from our purpose.
2. Unproductive activities that don’t align with your purpose. These things aren’t “bad” they just don’t align with living out personal missions. They may align with someone else’s mission, but do they align with yours?

The best example I have of this is never saying no when you’re asked to be on a committee or serve on a board even when the board has nothing to do with anything that aligns with your purpose. Similarly, accepting a job or work assignment that does not fit with your purpose can be extremely detrimental to living your mission.   Whereas we can participate in things like this in the short-run (especially if we need to put food on the table for a job) committing for the long-term that is counter to your purpose will lead to all things undesirable including unhappiness, feeling overwhelmed, and even resentment. They may be “good” activities, but you participating in them just because you can’t say “no” leads to you to “bad”.

When you say no to things that don’t align with who you are, you end up saying yes to your mission. And when you say yes to your mission, you give light to us all.