Say Yes

This week I was asked if I would like to be involved in helping to administrate a really cool project with a person who does really cool stuff. Of course I said yes. Because it was really cool and I wanted to be part of the project and the community it was creating.

I was not feeling that cool last night at 11pm when I was trying to communicate with someone on the other side of the world when I really just wanted to be in bed after a long day. And I didn't feel that cool this morning when again I was attempting to communicate with someone on the other side of the world and the sun wasn't even up, while at the same time trying to deal with an employee issue in another country in the region. I am not a morning person and starting the day feeling completely stressed out is not ideal.

Why. Did. I. Say. Yes.

Well...I kinda have this thing going that you shouldn't say no to opportunities. By opportunities I don't mean that person at work who tries to get you to do something because they don't want to (you should pretty much always say no to those). I mean the things that give you a new experience and put you out of your comfort zone. The things that might scare you a bit but also create excitement. On the smaller scale of things I agreed to shoot photos at some events to improve my photography skills. It was scary because I am not a professional photographer and the events were important to my colleagues, and I wanted to do a good job. I was pleased I said yes because I learnt a lot and the experience led to other things.

On the bigger side of things I said yes to moving to Singapore. At times the experience has been frustrating but I have learnt HEAPS and am a better person, Mum and HR Director because of it.

Another time I said yes was in my first HR job. I reported to the HR Manager for most of my work, but for "celebrating success" initiatives I reported to the CEO. The CEO recognised my creativity and wanted me to come up with unique ways to celebrate the success of our branches. One month there were 5 branches who exceeded their targets and I came up with the idea of sending singing telegrams with balloons to each branch. The CEO loved the idea and I set out to make it happen. It turns out it's easy to get singing telegrams in major cities in Australia. It also turns out if you are in a smaller city such as Adelaide or Newcastle, the only people you can hire are strippers. Not really appropriate. It was hard to go back to the CEO and tell him I couldn't deliver on that one. I scaled back the celebrations to a more practical level after that.

So while I felt bleary eyed this morning I would not have said no. Who else says yes? What have you said yes to?