Last year I saw a movie that impacted my life in a significant way. The movie wasn’t an Oscar winner and it didn’t receive critics acclaim. In fact I don’t remember it getting that much attention at all. Maybe people just thought it was going to be another funny Jim Carrey flic. Some of the scenes were funny no doubt. Not Ace Ventura kind of funny, of course.
I can remember leaving the theater and listening to other people’s reactions. I was amazed how many people thought it to be a “meh” kind of film. They obviously hadn’t seen the same move as I did. I mean, they may have seen the same film as I did, but I must have read into the story a bit more or something. I was absolutely energized afterward.
It was “Yes Man” – a modest movie about a very cynical, socially inept man who, after begrudgingly attending a motivational seminar, is struck with the inability to say “No” to things – requests, invitations, questions of all sorts.
At first, this “curse” causes him no end of grief and frustration, not only because the whole experience of saying “Yes” is utterly foreign to him. But he soon begins to embrace the change as he finds that the impact that this new “Yes Man” personality has is powerfully fulfilling.
Of course, nobody should say “yes” to everything. If someone had asked this character to jump off a bridge, unfortunately he would. Obviously we shouldn’t necessarily be so accommodating. But there are times when we make excuses and try to rationalize why we can’t do something, be it going out for drinks with work colleagues or signing up for the co-ed beach volleyball league or taking that dream adventure zip-lining trip to Costa Rica.
Time and time again many of us find ourselves making these sorts of excuses that have very little foundation to them. In fact it isn’t uncommon for us to try and convince ourselves various obstacles really do exist and that the trouble isn’t worth the effort.
The truth is that there are very few things in life that can be enjoyed without having to overcome obstacle at some level. What Jim Carrey’s character learns is that these obsticles are peanuts compared to the fulfillment that the end result achieves. Although he believes he is physically incapable of saying “Yes”, he actually becomes addicted to the word.
So for me, 2010 is the year of the “Yes Man” and if things keep going the way they have been the last few months, 2010 is going to be one of the greatest years that I’ve lived. All simply because I’ve been saying “Yes” and taking action to accomplish something that perhaps in the past I would have put off (getting my motorcycle license) or thought of as something that would require too much effort to do (zip lining in Costa Rica) and would possibly try to rationalize why not doing it would be a better decision (like taking Karate lessons). Some things I’ve done this year would have possibly never even crossed my mind in the past (like piloting a plane).
The moral of this article (and the movie, in my opinion), is that we should not constrain ourselves by concentrating too much on the obstacles in the way of doing something. We should not stay content with living inside our own little box of day in, day out. Unless there are real constraints, we should not try to make excuses why not to do something. Life is too short and there is far too much out there to do, far too many other people to meet, so much in this World that will bring personal fulfillment and ultimately make us better people.
So my challenge to you is say “Yes” when you would otherwise possibly not. Stretch yourself and experience new things. You do have the time. You probably can afford it. It really won’t be too much effort. In the end, it will be worth it all.
