Real quick, I am holding a free training next week, sharing all my favorite tools on consistency and accountability – details on how to enroll are at the bottom of this email.

And now, today, I want to talk about the quandary of saying yes to things ... and the very specific instance in which I believe you should say yes to everything.

See, one of my favorite things to discuss is productivity. I love talking focus, #GSD (or getting shit done) and working hard to create a life you love.

But it wasn’t always that way.

For a long time, I was a hamster on a wheel. I was working three jobs (aka The Fitness Hustle), saying yes to anyone and everything, at the gym the earliest, staying the latest, working out a million hours a week and bending over backwards for my clients.

And it wasn’t until about 7 years ago, when I read the book, ‘The Power of Full Engagement’ by Tony Schwartz, that for the first time I felt permission to build downtime into my schedule, take time to relax and allow for my brain to recharge. Tony explained the actual science behind building in mental reset time and not going-going-going; the outcome of which was MORE productivity, not less.

You have heard it before: should worth be awarded based on time put in or based on outcomes achieved? Does someone who sits at a desk at an office every day (or in my case, live at the gym 16 hours a day) actually get more accomplished than someone who maybe works less total hours but is more focused when they sit down to their work?

I am wholeheartedly on the camp of less time, more focused work. I have seen it—seemingly miraculously—work in my own life. But the problem was that my self-worth was wrapped up in … being BUSY. If I was busy, I had usefulness. If I was busy, I was important and people needed me. If I stayed busy doing things people asked of me, I could guarantee that they’d continue to like me and approve of me.

If I started saying no, well then, I’d have to have some tough conversations and people might not understand. Or they might think less of me. Or they might think I’m not so important after all.

The unfortunate thing for me back then was that “the busy” was actually keeping me from being more productive. The two are not the same.

The small things I felt obligated to do day in and day out, took up all the time—and more importantly—mental effort I needed to make strides on larger projects I said I wanted, like starting my online business, writing blogs or reaching out to people for networking purposes, attending conferences, etc.

It was easier to maintain the status quo of “busy” than it was to completely change my schedule and PUT MYSELF ON THE HOOK to do the bigger, harder stuff.

It wasn’t until 2008 that I started changing my schedule and protecting my time, and saying no that I was able to allot the time to doing those bigger things. I was also able to harness the mental energy to do them. Because more often than not, we have the time, but not the mental space to do something, right?

Which is why I love the concept of rest-based living. Like Tony Schwartz said, it’s strategically taking down time and turning your brain off for a bit, so that when you come back to work, you are focused and productive. Instead of living at 50% charge 24/7, you have times at 100% where you’re killing it, and times at 0% where you’re off duty. Over time, the second scenario produces more, better and bigger outcomes.

Chances are, you have heard me talk all of this at some point. I am a huge proponent of work hard, rest hard (like Metabolic Effect says) in my life. My friends can attest. I need built-in restorative time throughout the day in order to, ironically, get all my shit done!

But something that I want to point out real quick … those first 6 years of my career when I was saying yes like crazy? I needed that. I needed it to earn my right to discernment and boundaries and downtime later.

Let me explain.

I could never have started out my career being discerning. I could never have started as a brand new personal trainer at the gym and turned down clients. I could never have arranged my schedule to meet my every need when I had no experience or credibility!

And the way I did that was saying yes … a whole lot.

So while I agree that strategically using down time and “me” time and building in quiet recharge time is so super important for focus and achievement, I don’t think you can skip steps. You have to put in the grind time at the beginning. You have to earn your stripes. You need to be consistent and all-in for a while.

We see this in the exercise space too, right? We see beginners training for 3 months and then losing any muscle they built after taking a single month off. That doesn’t happen to those who have been lifting for years. They have more muscle, more muscle maturity and a lifestyle that can sustain a little time off from the gym.

If you building an online business, you can’t blog for 3 months and then go on vacation for 4 weeks and assume that people will still care when you come back. No one knows you yet! You haven’t built all that much trust with people yet. You can’t afford to go on break. You have to grind, say yes to a shitload of things, have a ton of conversations with whoever is interested and ultimately earn the right to say no later.

Why? Because there will be plenty of time to be discerning later. There will be plenty of time for boundaries later. There will be plenty of time to craft your ideal lifestyle later. There will be plenty of time to say no later.

So jump right in. Follow the momentum, have the full experience, whatever that looks like. You can always scale back. You can always change things on the fly. You can always make adjustments. But right now, stay open, say yes and navigate what shows up.

Last, one quick thing – I am holding a live training THIS TUESDAY August 25^th at 12pm EST and 8pm EST (same content): “4 Ways to Increase Your Consistency and Stay Accountable to the Things You Say You Want.”

Gonna be a little kick in the ass, but I will be sharing my favorite strategies and techniques to be more compliant with your nutrition, training and mindset.

Hope to see you on the call, let’s have a great week!

Xo,

Jill