The word is “No.” Let’s practice.
NO. No. No, thank you.
Hmm, I’ll need to pass - I can’t do it this time.
My plate is too full to add this, but thank you for checking.
Okay, you are ready.
The question is, “Can you help me with this for a second?” (or any other version of the invitation to add someone ELSE'S responsibility to YOUR workload).
What is funny is that for Non-Alphas, their discomfort is in ACCEPTING responsibility.
Because we ARE Alphas, our discomfort is in DECLINING responsibility (especially for everyone else's).
Admit it. When you read my sentence above, asking for help for just “a second," it felt kind of icky to say No.
Please listen carefully. You do one thing the way you do everything.
Do not fool yourself! If you cannot decline a SMALL request, you CANNOT decline a large one.
Alphas are wired to be rescuers and to earn love, usually by taking on some crazy circumstance and fixing it. We take on more responsibility than the average person. Oddly enough, we simultaneously take too much and too little.
We take too much responsibility for others and too little responsibility for ourselves, namely our feelings and emotions.
