May You Own Your Glorious No
Everyone knows who Liz Gilbert is, right?
My brother Thor writes about her all the time.
Allllllll the time.
In fact, his obsession with her is a little over the top. But who am I to judge, right?
So here’s this gem that Thor’s fifth favorite gal, Liz Gilbert, once shared with the world.
On some podcast or another, Liz talked about reaching a stage in life where she needed to start setting boundaries. She needed to start saying no to things because she was trapped in an endless loop of false yeses and all the people-pleasing was draining her life force energy. (Liz, by the way, calls “people-pleasing” by its real name: “people manipulating.”)
But there was a problem: Liz knew what she needed to do, but she was terrified to do it.
“I was so afraid to say no,” she said, “because I was afraid people would like me less.”
And then this interesting thing happened.
“I started saying no,” Liz continued the story, “and then people liked me less.”
And she didn’t die.
In fact, she became dramatically freer because she realized that people not liking her wouldn’t kill her.
May you end this week with at least one person liking you less because you owned your glorious no,
Keely
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Morning Musings is a delight-first writing practice where I wake up, put my fingers on the keyboard, and court the “wordless oneness” that comes with entering flow state. As a deep devotee of the question, “What would this look like if it were easy?,” these “learning in public” musings are unpolished and unrefined; I hit publish without editing, then dance my way into the rest of my day, fueled by the creative practice that makes my heart soar.
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