Is a publishing professional with more than twenty years of

Chapter 12
Learning to 
Say “No”

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A
re you one of those busy people who can always be counted 
on to take on an additional job? You’ll not only serve on 
the volunteer board, you’ll chair it, take the meeting notes, 
edit the newsletter, and head up the recruitment subcommittee.
“I just don’t know how you do it all,” folks tell you.
Do you? Do you know 
why
 you do? And have you considered 
how much that extra work is costing you?
“I just don’t have your energy,” folks tell you, or “I can’t ever seem 
to find the time”—right before they ask you to take on another job.
“We can always count on you!” they gush when you say “yes.”
Your willingness to serve speaks well for you. You help because 
you believe in the cause and because you want to make your fam-
ily,  your  workplace,  and  your  community  better  places.  You’re 
a helper, a problem solver, a doer. You’re community-minded, a 
team player, in sports parlance the “go-to person.”
But you may be doing more than you should—for your own 
physical and mental health, for the well-being of your loved ones, 
and for your ability to be effective and efficient. To find out, exam-
ine your motives—all of them—for saying “yes” to each task.