Say Yes to more in life

Sitting with colleagues and friends recently we all agreed that we needed to learn to say ‘yes’ to more things in life than we had before we retired.  After a full week’s work we had been content to work in the garden, go to a movie, relax.  But now we are less occupied with work, we notice that we need a new skill. I have friends who have been practicing this since their forties, but it is a new skill to me.  And my 83 year old friend is a great teacher.  She said she has learned to say yes, first, and then if necessary change her mind. “I think that it is a privilege when someone asks you to do something, and the least I can do is acknowledge this by saying, yes.  Then I go and look at my diary and sometimes I can’t. But mostly I just make myself go and nearly always I enjoy myself.”

Since she has told me this a number of times, the lesson is beginning to sink in and last week I too said, yes, to something I was not instantly excited to do.  But I said it, and I went and I am grateful I did. And sometimes a yes, turns into a ‘never again’, but at least I know.

As we talked it over in a group, it was interesting to notice that saying yes to more things didn’t feel like one of those ‘10 things to make your life better’ lists, but a skill that is vitally important to us.  As we age our friends die, and we need to make new ones, so we need to make sure we know how.