Who Will Cry When You Die - Chapter 9 and 10

Chapter 9 - Learn to Say No Gracefully

Say no to things gracefully so that you can focus/put energy into the things you want to achieve. Seek to ignore distractions from your goals.

I still struggle with this principle. As much as I can say no, I need to be more assertive. And not that I am not an assertive person, it’s more that I’m trying not to offend the person. Sometimes that results in me looking like I’m a pushover, which annoys me greatly because it encourages similar behaviour from that person in the future. I’ve learned to just say no and give my reason. It works 95% of the time. The other 5% I give a slower no haha. But I have learned to prioritize my goals and let everyone know exactly why I won’t do what they want me to do. And it is less frustrating and they respect my “no” more.

Chapter 10 - Take a weekly sabbatical

Organize your life so that you are doing more of the things you love.

I didn’t follow this principle, and I got sick. Despite all the self-help guidelines encouraging me to take a few days to myself, I was afraid to take a break. Because I didn’t take any days off, when something unexpected came up, I didn’t give myself any recovery time. I finished my routine irrespective of distractions. And then I got sick and everything stopped. So now I have 2 days where I do things at a slower pace and just enjoy the day instead of having a list of tasks pining for my attention.