Just Say Yes

I’m a big fan of saying yes. Not yes to every ridiculous request that anyone ever makes but yes to things that are important. Yes to things that are good for me. Yes to things that push me out of my comfort zone. Yes to things that scare me.

If I had not been a big proponent of saying yes, I would not be a runner today. Nor a cyclist. Nor a swimmer, a curler, or a golfer. I would not be a blog writer, nor a public speaker.

The idea of each of those things makes me uncomfortable. Those things were scary, some of them more than others, but they all turned out to be wonderful decisions and I am glad that I made them.

My life is richer because of those decisions and, given the chance, I would say yes again to every single one of them.

Yesterday I said yes to another one of those things that makes my heart pound in my ears and my stomach lurch.

I have done several presentations for Animas now and they asked me to send them a bio so that they could promote me for other presentations. That part was easy and I was happy to make one and email it off.

It was the question that followed that gave me pause.

“Would you be willing to present in French?” “The Quebec team will want to know.”

“Yes” I said. “As long as they are willing to work with me to make sure that I know the proper diabetes lingo in French” was my response. “And if I practice 1000 times with my French-speaking father” I thought.

I then proceeded to spend my 15-minute drive to my next appointment seeing if I could translate the English presentation I did last weekend into French in my head. I went through it sentence by sentence, other than a few words and expressions, and the diabetes lingo, I was able to do it. It wasn’t perfect but it was a pretty good start.

With practice and a bit of courage, I think I could totally do this.