June 17: #28 “Yes Man Day” say yes to every offer and opportunity. Go where the wind, the suggestion

Phil: I think I did this one wrong? All of my “yes” for today led me to splurging...and then tomorrow ended up being splurge day. I am now writing this post on a brand new Macbook Pro that this past month has been on my mind almost every few hours, it seems. It’s like every time I tried updating this Challenging Days website, the thought of it alone became burdensome because I was using a nine-year-old Macbook Pro that just can’t handle the light of day anymore. It’s annoying, because I took such care of the thing. But it just took forever to perform the simplest task. I tried everything to speed it up, but the internet moved on without it, I guess. So back to yes man day. I got nervous that, because I was working today, I barely had any chances to really feel this challenge. I spent the morning of my day not really being challenged to do yes or no tasks. I was told to be the one who drove to the coffee shop this morning, and I said okay. That was it. Then I went to work, and you ALWAYS say yes at work. It’s not like I ever say no to working on the newspaper. So I was thinking I was messing this one up big time. But I was watching the clock to leave work, and had this urge to hit up an Apple Store before they closed. I got out of work, and mapped out one store uptown a bit. I thought, this was a great chance to re-up on yesterday’s walking challenge, since I sort of did that one almost as part of already existing routine anyway. So I walked uptown, secretly hoping that this “yes” stuff could be the crutch that I use to limp past the commitment finish line and finally buy this damn computer. I walked about 25 minutes to the store, and the saleswoman was super helpful and had me yessing her all the way to my credit card. Add ons, too. I was yessing it all. Apple care? Yes. Accessories? Yes. I yessed my way to splurge. And now I have to splurge tomorrow, too? Jesus. I want to give this challenge another run, though, perhaps stretch it out loosely over the next few days. I feel like there’s more for me to get out of it.

Bruce: Coming up with this challenge was of course inspired by both the YES MAN book and the movie, I read the book many years ago and it's actually even crazier than the movie thing is that the author Danny Wallace really does throughout all his time of responding positively with complete lack of filter to the things he agrees to and that always impacted me as a really great lesson even as he took it to the extreme! There were not a ton of situations where I found myself having to say yes to things bought a few of the opportunities that occurred were getting paid for a feature guess the verse that someone commission from me for a good amount of money (only later to be chastised militantly by a mutual friend and then having to say yes to giving some of that money back that I’d said yes to the generous initial offer), I donated to the cerebral palsy foundation because someone invited me on Facebook to do so and despite my meager funds I made a donation that I could afford, I got to go to a really great ice cream parlor that started in the 1920s in Massapequa for a friends birthday party and I had a great root beer float! Cherry? Yes? Whip? Yes! Normally I would say no to the whip cream but i'm glad I said yes because they make it homemade and it was the best whip cream I've ever had! I also I agreed to plans to go to the gym with a friend next week who I don't see often enough and also Being agreeable led me to the opportunity to do some groundskeeping “side work” on Monday! There were admittedly a bunch of times where I was sort of dreading what might come up and I thought about how silly that is, how it is a very weird plague of the psyche to be afraid to react positively to opportunities and situations that might bring you joy for new experiences! I even thought about how I might possibly want To extend this experiment longer and see what it brings about! I generally am a “fly by the seat of my pants”, “go with the flow” type and I am agreeable to a lot of things and my codependency often has me saying yes to more than I can handle but I make it work one way or another, but today was a realization that there are so many things that I respond negatively to throughout the day without even really thinking about it.

Tomorrow's challenge: #15 Splurge and buy yourself something you’ve put off for a long time