However, I decided to end it after a few dozen episodes because it wasn’t helping me reach my creative goals at the time. I went back to podcasting later on when I had more time and it was clear that podcasting fit into my business and creative goals.

You can say “no” to something right now but it doesn’t mean you’re saying “no” forever. In times of high stress, you have to focus on what matters most right now. You might disappoint some people, or even disappoint yourself, but you can’t do everything. You have to choose.

Daily Question: If you are feeling stressed right now, what can you eliminate or postpone on your schedule?

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A few weeks ago, I said “no” to an amazing opportunity to help writers. This was an opportunity to partner with an entrepreneur I greatly respect, a person who has been very influential in my life. He was one of the first people to help me see that I could make a living with writing, and I’ve read his books and listened to his podcasts for years.

This opportunity would have let me help more people, expand my influence, and spend more time with people I highly respect. So why did I say no?

The answer is simple: I didn’t have the bandwidth to do a good job in this role.

I’m working on several ghostwriting projects, leading my Daily Writer Community, creating this podcast, and working on a couple of my own books. This is also my son’s senior year of high school. I’m definitely in time preservation mode since he will be out of the house and living on his own life before I know it.

Remember, anytime you say “yes” to one thing, you are saying “no” to a hundred other things.

Time is not infinite. You only have so much of it. So make sure you are saying “yes” to the right things for your season of life. Sometimes you will have to pass up amazing opportunities because the timing isn’t right. But you have to respect your existing commitments and realistically assess whether you can add something else to your plate.

In the case of the opportunity I mentioned above, it was important that I be able to do a good job if I committed to it. But the reality was that it would be something I was squeezing into my schedule, just trying to do the bare minimum instead of really giving it a good effort.

I have too much respect for the person who was offering me the opportunity, and too much respect for writers, to give something a half-hearted effort.

I hope you feel the same way. When you say “yes” to something, make sure you can do it well. Commit to a few things and put your full effort into them.

Then say “no” to everything else.

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What do powerful words look like?

When you think of powerful words, you probably imagine Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address, or JFK giving a speech about America’s mission to go to the moon. Or maybe you imagine an author like Maya Angelou talking about how she overcame a difficult childhood.

But powerful words aren’t just reserved for classic speeches or world-renowned books. You have powerful words, too. In fact, there is a single two-letter word that has more power than anything else in your vocabulary.

But first, a quote from E.B. White, who was the author of classic children’s books such as Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web. He was also the second half of the Strunk & White duo, who was responsible for ​The Elements of Style​—the best little book every writer should read.

He said, “I must decline, for secret reasons.” We do not know the reasons he declined, but we do know this: he said “no” to an invitation and he didn’t elaborate on the reasons. He was confident enough in his reasoning to let his simple “no” be a no.

“No” is such a small word—just two simple letters. But it has immense power because it can give you the freedom to make time for your writing and focus on what is most important to you.

You have a lot of things pulling you in different directions. It’s OK to say no. You can’t do everything, and you can’t please everybody.

If your writing is going to be a priority, you must make time and space in our lives to write. That means saying no sometimes. It’s easier said than done. But if you want to reach your full potential as a writer, you must focus on doing the work that matters, rather than trying to make everybody else happy.

That little two-letter word, NO, is the key to your success.

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