A couple years ago, a friend recommended I pick up the book, “Year of Yes” by Shonda Rhimes. If any of you have watched Grey’s Anatomy, How To Get Away With Murder, or Bridgerton… she created those shows! Since moving to Seattle a year and a half ago, I finally bought a ticket to board the train to Shondaland and started watching Grey’s Anatomy with my housemate. And that was as much drama as I could handle in my day-to-day life without pulling my hair out.
“Year of Yes” was pretty much a reality TV show with extended monologues. Without the visuals of Grey’s Anatomy to captivate me, I got stuck in a rut with the book. I wanted to finish it because I finish what I start but I lamented the amount of inspirational and commercial fluff that didn’t provide me any insight into the real person behind the television persona. There wasn’t really anything that was thought-provoking for me.
In the end, I finished it and emerged with a different understanding.
If you find yourself complacent or not sure where to start, just try anything and say yes to everything. Try a lot of things and throw it on the wall- see if it sticks.
BUT you then begin to understand what you want to dive deeper into and what you don’t- you should then stop saying yes to everything. Rhimes said yes to primarily speaking engagements. The majority of your yeses should teach you something you want to learn- curate and purge your consumption to enable yourself to produce something out of it- whether it be an opinion, artwork, or lesson learned.
Time is precious- balance saying no to things that don’t challenge you and saying yes to the few remaining that pique your interest.
Be selective about what you say yes to.
Karen's Capsule 