Saying Yes

I've recently finished reading "Yes Man" by Danny Wallace. The premise is that Danny is told by a stranger on a bus that he should open himself up by saying yes more often. And so he does. To EVERYTHING. He experiments with this for about 6 months, and of course, hilarity ensues. But so does some other amazing stuff. The paths that saying yes takes him down made me wonder - what if I said yes more often?

Last Saturday, I decided to do my own little experiment. My run team met in the lovely coastal town of Half Moon Bay. Here is a run down of the day:

Hey Miriam, would you like to try running 8 miles today?

"YES!" Despite never having run that far in my life.

That was a great run - how about we go ice our legs in the freezing cold ocean?

"YES!" - That's me, 3rd from the left.

After going home and getting warm, a dear friend called, and even though I had a zillion things on my to-do list, she asked, "Is now a good time to chat?"

To which I responded, "Yes, absolutely now is a good time to chat!" And so we did - for an hour and a half, and it was great. She's going through some crazy stuff right now, and we were both crying at many points in those 90 minutes. But I was so happy to be able to be there for her for as long as she needed me.

After that, some friends called and asked if I wanted to go bowling. That was an easy "YES!" While bowling, I was asked if I wanted beer, and even though during dinner I was asked if I wanted wine, and then more wine, to which I said yes to half a bottle, I had to say yes to frosty mug. And another yes to, "would you like to play another frame?"

Oh, your beer mug is empty, would you like more? "YES!" It might have been buzzed Miriam saying yes at this point, as I'm quite the light weight, but that beer sure did tasted good.

Around 11:30 PM, we left the bowling alley (not to worry, I was not the driver) and when asked if I wanted to go The Creamery and get milkshakes, I had only one response. I may have broken the streak by ordering chocolate cream pie instead of a milkshake, but when asked if I wanted onion rings, I again, said yes. Chocolate cream pie and onion rings taste better together than you'd think.

Finally, I got to respond to "are you ready to go home?" with a lovely "Yes".

It was a fun day, and it's a good thing I said yes to running 8 miles, or I'd have gained 5 lbs.

So YES, I am going to try to open myself up to saying yes to opportunities more often. Give it a try, if you're feeling brave, and let me know how your day of yes goes for you!