As babies we said no with such ease and as we get older we tend to forget that no is a complete sentence. There is no comma or semi colon aka there’s no need for an explain for why you said what you said. We say yes to so many things we actually don’t want to do or don’t need to do. For instance, how many times have you been in meetings that could’ve been an email or meetings that have nothing to do with the action items on your to-do list?! Then we end up overwhelmed with a laundry list of things to do that we delay getting to because we’re about to take a nap to allegedly get the energy we need to complete all our tasks!! And yes it maybe our fault because we said yes to a bunch of things but I’m getting off topic now so we’re going to focus back on learning how to say no. Here are 3 things to think about to make it easier to tell people no:

I am not being mean, rude, or unhelpful I am merely setting a boundary for self preservation
I can show up and support in other ways because I am multifaceted beautiful person
Does a time commitment to this take away from committing time to something that better aligns to my values & goals?

The tone of how you say no is important so if plain old “no” needs a little dressing up try some of these phrases:

Thank you for thinking of me but at this time I’m going to have to decline.
I appreciate the opportunity but I’m going to have to pass on this.
I’m extremely grateful but I am currently not available.

Also you don’t want to leave any room for confusion by using phrases such as: