The Practice of YES

There’s a quiet tension many people live with, even if they don’t say it out loud.

Life isn’t falling apart—but it isn’t moving forward either. You have ideas, intentions, maybe even a sense that something more is possible. And yet, day after day, things stay mostly the same. Not because you’ve chosen it, but because nothing has quite pushed you to act.

That’s where The Practice of Yes begins.

At the center of the book is a quiet shift—learning to say “yes” in the moments where you usually hesitate.

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A life spent saying “no” is a life lived behind a very sturdy, very lonely fence. I remember sitting in my study years ago, staring at an invitation to speak at a small local gathering, and my first instinct was to find a polite excuse to decline. We often think that by saying “no,” we are protecting our time or our peace, but more often than not, we are just shrinking our world until it is too small to breathe in. The word “yes” is a bit like a key that turns in a lock you didn’t even know was there.

The Practice of YES is an exploration of what happens when we stop retreating and start stepping toward the invitations life throws our way.

Chapter 1: To Discover Your Calling, Say Yes
Your true vocation is rarely something you find by sitting in a dark room thinking; it is something that finds you while you are busy participating. By saying yes to a new project or a strange request, you give your calling a chance to tap you on the shoulder.

Chapter 2: You Just Need to Say “Yes”
Sometimes we overcomplicate things with pros and cons lists that lead nowhere. This chapter looks at the simple, quiet power of letting go of the “how” and just committing to the “what.”

Chapter 3: The “Yes” Attitude
An open mindset isn’t something you are born with; it is a posture you choose to adopt. We discuss how to cultivate a spirit that looks for possibilities rather than roadblocks.

Chapter 4: Five Horrible Things That Prevent You from Accepting
Fear, perfectionism, and the ghost of past failures can be loud enough to drown out any opportunity. We identify these mental hurdles so you can step over them with a bit more grace.

Chapter 5: Give yourself permission to be who you want to be.
I spent a lot of time waiting for someone to tell me I was “qualified” to be a writer. This chapter is a reminder that the only person who can truly authorize your transformation is you.

Chapter 6: Taking up the Challenge
A “yes” usually comes with a bit of a climb, and that is where the growth happens. We look at the value of the struggle and why the hardest tasks often offer the greatest rewards.

Chapter 7: Five Strategies for Becoming a Yes Person
If you have been a “no” person for a long time, you need a way to retrain your brain. I’ve gathered five practical ways to start loosening your grip on the familiar.

Chapter 8: Ten Things You Should Accept Right Now
Some truths about ourselves and our lives are hard to swallow, but acceptance is the first step toward change. We list ten vital things to embrace so you can stop fighting reality.

Chapter 9: How Your Life Can Be Changed by Saying Yes
The most interesting people I know are the ones who took a chance on a whim. We look at how a single “yes” can create a ripple effect that changes your career, your home, and your heart.

Chapter 10: Five Ways Your Positive Attitude Can Affect Those Around You
When you start saying yes, the people in your house and your office start to feel it too. Your openness becomes a permission slip for everyone else to be a bit more brave.

Chapter 11: Say “Yes” and Get Things Done
There is a strange momentum that comes from commitment. We will talk about how Making a decision to move forward is the best cure for the strong feeling of being stuck.

Chapter 12: Accept Your Purpose
Your role in this life really is not a burden; it is actually a gift that is waiting for you to recognize it. This section helps you stop running from what you were clearly meant to do.

Chapter 13: Saying “Yes” Despite Not Knowing What Will Happen
Often, the most meaningful things in life happen hidden by the fog where we can’t see the end of the path. I share why the lack of a guarantee is actually what makes the journey worth taking.

Chapter 14: The Techniques for Creating a Yes Mentality
We look at the daily “liturgies” of thought that keep your mind flexible. These techniques ensure that your first response to life remains one of curiosity rather than suspicion.

Chapter 15: Your reality can be altered by the word “yes.”
We end by looking at the landscape of a life lived with open hands. You will discover that the world hasn’t changed, but because you said yes, your experience of it has been entirely rewritten.

The world opens up in ways we can’t imagine when we finally decide to stop saying no.

Read. Learn. Repeat.