Activity 23 - 30 Days of YES
The Talk
This activity is based on a recent TED2016 talk - Shonda Rhimes: My Year of Saying Yes to Everything. Shonda is the creator and a writer for Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder. In her talk she explains how creativity used to work for her, and what happened when the ‘hum’ of her creativity stopped. The title of the talk is slightly misleading, as she explains it was a year of saying “yes to all the things that scared me. Anything that made me nervous, took me out of my comfort zone."
The Activity
I'm going to take that basic premise: to say yes to the things that scare me or push me out of my comfort zone. I am going to caveat it with three rules - which I would be applying anyway, but I think I should explain them.I will say yes to the things that scare or push me, as long as they: are not illegal; don't go against my morals; and I can afford to do them. Yes, I realise that this will be limiting, but I'm quite okay with that.Not only will I say yes and do whatever it is, I'll share them with you - because that still scares crap out of me too.
The Challenge
This is quite a simple challenge to explain, but I'm expecting it to be difficult. The challenge is that whenever something comes up that makes me scared or nervous, when I hesitate for no other reason than the idea freaks me out - well I have to do that thing.Now, someone mentioned to me that they didn't think I said no very much, and she might be right in some ways - but there are still a lot of things I procrastinate over, or simply avoid doing. So, to start this all off, tomorrow I will write a list of at least a half dozen tasks/actions that I have been avoiding, because they scare me or are just a little too far outside my comfort zone! And yes, I will write a post that lists them, so you can see whether I complete them or not - crap!There is a second part to this challenge - deep breath - I'm asking you if there is anything you would think I should say yes to? Yep, I'm giving you the opportunity to get in on this and challenge me, remembering the list above.I'd also like you to join me in this one! Becoming a person who is willing to do the things that scare you is a wonderful experience - it is largely what I did for My Year of TED, and what I have continued to do (to an extent). Because it is true that I don't say no as often anymore, but there are still some things that I can't bring myself to readily say yes to. So, I'm asking you, will you spend 30 days saying YES to the things that scare you? Come on, say yes :-)