The Cost of Not Saying No.

 Some of us aren't really good at saying no to anyone, and a few of us are choosy enough🙂. Within your friends' , workspace you can say no, but not to the outside world, in day-to-day places.

And today, such an incident happened. Today, my friend and I went to a hotel. Our initial plan was to go to a snacks corner, as we both had very little time. We both had another important work, so within that short time we wanted to have something that would be filling. But we were quite hesitant to pick that snack corner because we already had one bad food experience there. Still, that was the only option we had in that place. Also, it would take very little time to prepare, so we could eat and get back to the work we had.

Near that spot there was a hotel. But as we all know, hotels do take some time to prepare the food. We had just half an hour. We were standing near the hotel wondering whether we should go in or no.

Then there was a server who was wearing their brand T-shirt, insisting that we go inside and have food. We actually wanted a minute to decide whether to step in or not, but that wasn’t valued. I don’t deny the fact that it’s the job of that man, so there isn’t any fault in him. But the fault was ours.

We could've firmly said we needed some time.

We could've said, “Anna, give us a minute, we’ll discuss.”

We could've said, “Sorry, we have no time, so this won’t work.”

Also, this is extremely common, especially in our culture where people try to be polite or avoid seeming rude. Saying “no, we don’t have time” can feel awkward in the moment.

So with that insistence, we just went in.

Then at the reception they asked us to wait for five minutes for a table, as it was crowded. Even then 

I had a chance to say no—I could've, but I didn’t.

I did ask them, “Will it take so much time?”They said, “No, ma’am, five minutes.” Again, taken away by the fake timing🥲. We waited for fifteen minutes, got the table, then again waited for fifteen minutes for the food. Then of course our hot paneer fried rice came, but we were also mentally hot because it was already time.

Then what happened?

My friend somehow managed to go. I too tried, but I ran out of time.So I couldn’t go to that important event.

Here my point is: I realised the cost of not saying NO.  Since morning, I somehow wanted to attend that event. I planned and scheduled my day accordingly. But since I wasn’t able to say no, and felt guilty to do so, my schedule got collapsed—not the hotel owners'.

So, though this could seem like a very small incident, for me it personally disturbed me, yet it also taught me a valuable lesson and situations like this teach us that boundaries protect our priorities.