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   Monday, August 24, 2026 at 2:09 PM
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   Wednesday, August 26, 2026 at 12:05 PM

Fri 9/4 — "I say yes to things I do not want to do"

"I say yes to things I do not want to do." I hear that from executives who are, by any external measure, in charge. They set direction. They hold budgets. And they are carrying a calendar assembled almost entirely out of other people's priorities. It rarely happens in one conversation. It happens one reasonable yes at a time. A meeting you did not need to attend. A project that was never yours. A role you outgrew two years ago and stayed in anyway, because leaving would have created a problem for somebody else. Each one is easy to justify. None of them feel like a decision. Then one morning you look at a week you did not choose and cannot remember agreeing to. Leaders who came up inside high-control environments learned early that keeping things smooth required their own flexibility. It worked. It kept the peace. It also taught them that their own limits were the most negotiable thing in the room. What accumulates is undramatic, which is exactly why it goes unaddressed. An overloaded schedule. A resentment nobody says out loud. A depletion that a vacation does not touch. Saying no without guilt is not a trait some leaders were issued and others were not. It is a capability, and it can be rebuilt. Which yes are you still carrying that you would take back?