Saying NO: A way to value our YES

In this article, a group of mid-career environmental social scientists discourse talk about their experience during a year in which they agreed to say no to any proposal they received. The objective was to learn and get used to saying ‘no’, what, as they say, gives you the chance to attune “intentional ‘yes’ in our limited research lives.”

As they conclude, this task is emotional work. For this reason, it may be difficult to say ‘no’ because we feel we are letting down a person or avoiding a responsibility. But no, we are just respecting our intellectual and mental privacy.

In my opinion, this activity should be done at least once by everyone. It’s crucial to help us build personal boundaries, evaluate things objectively, and remember the value of our efforts.

In conclusion, this social experiment, that remembers the importance of saying ‘no’, demonstrates that our brain can get used to some tasks like this one, so after a year of saying ‘no’ to projects, opportunities and people, we value our ‘yes’ a sightly more.