5 good habits essential for a successful career

“If you’re in a place where you’re trying to expand your role or if your goal right now for your career is to expand what you do and take on more important things to show that you can get stuff done, then say yes to things. Even if you find yourself questioning how to do it, saying yes gives you that opportunity and shows that you’re eager and that you’re interested. That being said, the other side of that coin is if you’re someone who’s trying to improve your career by just finishing what you have — maybe you just were promoted, maybe you’re putting a new leadership position, or maybe you’re just in a place in your career where the amount of stuff you have is just really overwhelming — you need to focus on saying no, not saying yes. And what I mean by that is learn to say no with integrity. 

“When you already feel like you have enough on your plate and a new task comes in or new request comes in, fight the habit of immediately saying yes and trying to figure it out, and instead building the habit of respectfully declining by saying: ‘My whole goal is to get the right stuff done, and I’m concerned that saying yes to this will jeopardize that,’ or ‘I’m going to have to unfortunately decline that,’ or ‘I really want to focus on the stuff I already had my plate.’ If the task really needs to get done, you can even ask about reprioritizing the completion date. Sometimes saying no isn’t just saying no, it’s about renegotiating when someone needs your help.”