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Three Choices
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: Your 10 Keys to Happiness
By Kimberly Ross As I am sure you know, when people say, "It's my pleasure," they usually mean something along the lines of, "There's nothing on Earth I would rather do less."
~Lemony Snicket, The Penultimate Peril "It all comes down to three choices." These were the wise words I heard one day while watching a daytime talk show. At the time of this "light bulb moment" I was consumed by a very busy vocation that involved pleasing a lot of people and I was also a single mom of three teenagers. Any given day contained more requests for my time than I could count, and I usually felt I needed to give an answer right away. That answer was usually "yes." Consequently I felt overwhelmed. Then, on a rare day when I was home in the afternoon, one of my favorite talk show hosts talked about the "three choices." She had been prone to saying yes more than she should, and she talked about how overwhelmed she felt. However, she had learned that she didn't have to answer a request right away. If she didn't feel ready to say yes or no, she discovered that there was a third option she'd not previously employed: "Let me get back to you." She related that by giving herself time to think about how she wanted to respond, she often declined requests that she might have previously — and prematurely — said yes to. Now she was giving herself breathing room to consider her schedule, and more importantly, her desires and priorities. And she noted that it was important to have the integrity to follow up with your answer later. (Keep reading)  
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