Absolute YES!

Last night I met with the group I have been involved with for about a year and a half now with the life coach. We are following Cheryl Richardson’s book and are on the chapter, “The Absolute NO list”. Part of our homework was to come up with the Absolute NO’s and the Absolute YES’s in our lives. The no’s were much easier for me when I worked on this prior to our group. I will not allow people disrespect me. I will not allow drama in my life. I will not maintain relationships with people who have problems with drugs or alcohol. I will not be bullied or guilted into saying yes when I want to say no. Those were easy and are all along the same lines. I will be treated with respect.
The yes’s were MUCH harder. I had 2 silly ones because they were the only things I could commit to and I was thinking about it for a while too, and I could still only come up with spending the day at the beach on a sunny summer weekend day and optional shower-option no- Sunday’s.
During the group we were all talking and sharing our lists and what aspects of creating the lists we all found difficult. We all agreed that you need to be in the right place and open for something like this to work for you.
Then I started to share my New Year’s Resolution… doing 2 things a month outside my comfort zone, and I also shared my 101 list and brought up how I had named my year, 2009: The Year of New Experiences. I said how I am signed up for Kayaking this weekend and next weekend I am doing the ropes course and even volunteered to drive (so I couldn't back out). Some women couldn't believe I was doing this with groups from on line, with people I had never met.
On the way home I started to think about my Absolute Yes’s. I realized that as difficult as it was for me to officially sit down and create an actual list, I had basically already done that. I have my 101 list. Those are my absolute yes’s. I also have my 2 things a month that I committed to. And then I realized that my absolute yes is my year. Making my year the year of new experiences. Doing that, keeping my commitment to myself, doing 2 things a month outside of my comfort zone and continuing to work on my 101 list, those in themselves, doing all of that for me, THAT is my absolute yes list!