If you think about it, it’s much easier to say ‘no’ than ‘yes’. Saying no doesn’t require any thought or any commitment from you whereas saying yes effectively means that you have promised to do something or be somewhere.
Unfortunately, saying no becomes easier and easier as we get older because we have more experience of negativity. If someone asks you to go bungee jumping with them you will no doubt recall a story of someone being killed whilst bungee jumping. If someone asks you to go on a bike ride with them, you may remember that the last time you rode a bike you had a pain in your knee for two or three days afterwards. You’d really love to get in better shape and wish that you could go to a gym but you just know that the pain in your back just won’t allow it…….
Eventually, saying no becomes a habit and the list of things that you say ‘no’ to becomes longer and longer until the only thing that you’re comfortable with is sitting in a nice comfy chair in your living room watching the TV and wondering what to have for dinner. This may sound harsh but, when you reach this point, really you are just waiting to die. So what would happen if you started saying ‘yes’ instead of ‘no’?
This is 109 year old war veteran Richard Overton speaking about his life, his experiences, his relationship with 91 year old Ms Love and the fun that they have together. His attitude is that ‘if you give up, you’re through’. As he points out, none of us knows when we will die so we just need to forget about it, get on with life and never give up!
Tao Porchon-Lynch was 94 years old when this video was made. She truly believes that anything is possible. She says ‘don’t procrastinate, don’t put it off until tomorrow because tomorrow never comes’. Tao is the world’s oldest yoga teacher and she inspires pupils who are decades her junior with her amazing spirit and zest for life. She is not interested in people telling her what she can’t do, only in what she can do.
This is Irene O’Shea and, at the age of 100 she decided to do her first sky dive to raise money to help combat Motor-Neuron disease. Irene traveled around the world on her own when she was 84 and at 92 was taken out for a ride on a Harley Davidson. She says that she does all these things because she “is very happy and still capable”.
Of the sky dive she says “I loved it and can’t wait to do it again…I wasn’t scared at all”.
All of these people have the same energy – they, quite simply, live a happy life, doing what they want to do and enjoying each day as it arrives. The more time we spend telling ourselves that we can’t do something, the less chance we will have to do the things we could do if we actually believed that we were capable of doing them. It’s easy to be negative and it’s easy to say no but just trying saying yes and see what happens – you might surprise yourself!
All About Life 