If You Want To Have A Good Life You Need To Get Rid Of Your Yeah Buts

We all know the excuses, right? The ones that arrive when we try and do something new, hard, or scary.

“Yeah, but I’m not ready…”

“Yeah, but I’m not good enough…”

“Yeah, but what if I fail?”

“Yeah, but what if they say no?”

Yeah but, yeah but, yeah but…

So what?!

Fuck the Yeahbuts.

What if I told you ‘ready’ was an illusion, and there is never a perfect time to do something bold, new, or uncertain? What if I told you that fear is an invitation to grow and learn and expand and that you’re just mistaking it for a stop sign on the right path instead of a helping hand leading you towards the promised land of more luck and love and fun than you could ever understand but you’ve got to take a moment, gather strength, and take the chance?

What if I promised you already are and forever will be good enough, that enoughness is a birthright we’re taught to unlearn, not something we ever have to earn? What if ‘good enough’ was simply a choice you make day after day after day? What if your enoughness never actually goes away, but rather hides in plain sight waiting to be noticed and nurtured?

What if I suggested that failure is success with different spelling, a prerequisite for knowledge, a non-existent yet socially acceptable form of avoidance, a figment of your imagination, a wrench in the machine of all that is meant to be, a ghost that turned your heart home into a haunted house? And if you learn something from the experience, how can it ever be a failure?

What if them saying no is one of the best things that ever happens to you? What if we just reframe rejection as ‘data collection’ so we can ‘gather some evidence’ to analyze and improve upon for next time? And while we’re at it, what if we reframe success as taking a chance, on being vulnerable and asking for what you want rather than how they respond or what happens next? What if success meant you placed a bet on yourself, that you did something brave? What if success just meant you went for it?

“Yeah, but you don’t understand…”

You’re absolutely right. I don’t understand, and probably never will. But what if we don’t have to fully understand something in order to accept it as true?

Deep down, you already know what you have to do.

The only question that matters is, “Will you?”