How to say “no” by Kaveeshan Gnanarajah

 How to say “no” by Kaveeshan Gnanarajah

Imagine you finished a long day at work, and you’re finally ready to relax for the weekend. Then your phone gets a notification: “Can you cover my shift this weekend”? Although this exact situation has not happened to me, I have been through similar struggles like this, especially with two older brothers who constantly pick on me for fun. With that being said, its hard to say no. You never explicitly want to be the type of person that people think can’t help you or is unhelpful, so you rely on saying “yea sure”, even when it might be the best move. For those of you who can easily say “no” to things, then this article might not be for you.

Anyways, I’ve had to learn, not just within my family, but in literally any applicable scenario that saying no is not always rude. Yeah, it might be inconvenient for the other person, but think about it from their shoes. If you are asking people to do something, you aren’t gonna assume everyone is gonna say “yeah sure, I can do that”.  You have to be honest while also not explicitly being rude. There is definitely some ways that imply “no” in a negative connotation. Instead, you can rely on literally anything as simple as “Nah, I can’t, my bad”. Obviously, you don’t have to lie. In fact, you shouldn’t. If you really don’t have anything going on, you don’t have to say no, you should be willing to help people. But what I am specifically talking about is for people who are already busy or dealing with something, and who still say “Yeah” even when they really shouldn’t.

As I said before, this is just a simple guide for people who are scared to say it at all. There are times when helping is the right thing to do, but if you never say no, people in this world will end up taking advantage of your kindness. There’s a reason why every plane announces to put your air mask on yourself before helping others.