How Saying Yes or No Shapes Your Creativity, Focus, and Fulfillment

The yes-no dilemma of creatives

Pattern design by author & surface pattern designer, Alyssa-Ninja, Yours Ninja

I recently said yes to lots of things. Wonderful things. Surprise events, dates, hikes. And even though I truly enjoyed all of them, I was left feeling overwhelmed. I realized that I just didn’t take enough time for myself.

There is work, family, love, friends…, but Me on the individual level was left hanging. I said yes to everybody else but me. As a surface pattern designer, this also meant saying no to precious time for sketching, designing, and letting my creativity flow. Can you see yourself in a similar dilemma?

That’s why I made a promise to myself: to be more disciplined with my yes’s and no’s. But it’s not all that easy.

The struggle of yes’s and no’s

Every time you say yes to someone or something, you say no to the artist within you. Still, many of us feel bad saying no or it might even be a default response.

There are pretty much two teams. The yes-sayers and the no-sayers. Here’s a little dip into the stereotypes.

The yes-sayers

They are convinced that saying yes opens up new doors of opportunity. Chances to take. For creatives like us, saying yes might mean…