Yes

I'm reading this book at the moment where this guy decides he's missing out on too much in his life by saying no too often. So he decides for the next 8 or so months he's going to say yes to anything anyone asks of him. Now, this is no Dice Man for anyone who has read it, the story is real and the guy is hilarious. He says yes to viagra pill spam mail, yes to becoming part of an extra terrestrial social group who claim God is living in East London. Basically yes to anything and everything.

The thing is, saying yes all the time is hard work. And for us time poor lazy folk living in 2008, we find it hard enough to commit to social plans without bailing at the last minute let alone helping someone or going outside our comfort zone at the cost of some of our precious spare time. Now, obviously, it's unrealistic to say yes all the time. But how many times do we say no to things, when really, it's would be easy enough just to do it. How many experiences do we miss out on, interesting people not met, new things not learned by saying no? And how many times when we unexpectantly say yes find ourselves having a great time. We're so conditioned to saying no, perhaps it does take an experiment like saying yes all the time to get ourselves out of this selfish rut we find ourselves in.

I find that living over here immediately makes me suspicious of anyone and everything. Sometimes I act inexplicably rude to people. Sure the guys handing out the free papers by the tube annoyingly shove them at you, but screwing up my already un naturally friendly face and flicking my wrist is probably going a little far. I purposely never answer the door incase I have to speak to a door knocker. To be fair, the last door knocker I spoke to yelled 'fuck you' through the door, so my experiences of being friendly have not been great.

So what am I trying to say? Well, I'm pretty good at saying yes to things but maybe not yes to enough of the right things that could possibly lead me to a wider range of interesting people and experiences. Oh and perhaps tap into that girl who arrived in London a year ago and said no thank you to free newspapers and didn't swear at tourists who stood on the wrong side of the escalators. Maybe I should slow my walking down too. My speed and dodging capabilities are at an all time high.