Is There A Difference Between A Hell Yes And A Highway To Yeah?
This morning I listened to an interesting discussion about tapping into your intuition.
The person speaking, Jessica Depatie, was proposing that sometimes a Yes doesn’t show up as a Hell Yes. That it is often more subtle.
It is great when something is so easy to say yes to that you can’t help but say yes.
but she proposes that oftentimes it is much easier to tell a Hell NO from a Hell Yes.
This, she says, is because often a “real” yes has fears, doubts, resistance, or other things that block you from taking the next step or saying Hell Yes.
How do we make sense of this?
What can we do to make sure we’re not putting off the real Hell Yeahs?
I think that is where getting on a Highway to Yeah helps.
First, get rid of all the Hell Nos in your life.
This is the idea of reducing unnecessary friction in your life, which is the aim of my Zeroscaping game.
The conversation I heard this morning led me to the realization that I have been approaching the game the wrong way.
I have been trying to squeeze in and track mostly Hell Yeses onto the spreadsheet.
Then I get frustrated that I can’t achieve them all.
As I was walking along this morning, listening to this conversation, I realized that I have said Hell Yes to five One Hit Wonders.
These include:
Playing my Zeroscaping game (i.e., see “August FIRE Metrics That Matter” to get a sense of what is tracked)
Posting a blog every day for a year
Getting 15,000 steps in per day for a year
Maintaining my target weight (within a 4-pound range) for a year
Escaping the algorithm for a year
The first three take time.
And I am still struggling with how to maintain them and do other things that are Hell Yeahs in my life, too.
For example …
Originally, my goal was to draft, edit, and post each blog article in one hour or less, give or take.
As my ideas have become a bit more nuanced and broad, so has the time it takes to draft, edit, and post each day.
Instead of one hour, I now often need two hours.
This is a good example of where I could apply the Hell No approach. I have 18 minutes left to draft this article. Get it done,
then take another 20–30 to edit and post the sucker.
Period.
Stop going on long, elaborate rides.
And as far as steps go, today I got up about 6:30 a.m. (Whoa, sleeping in, dude!), had a cup of coffee, and hit the door to go walk at about 7:05 a.m.
I got to the point where I typically turn around for my first of three long walks, and I decided to keep going.
Then I got to the place where if I turned back, it would cover two of my three long walks, but I kept going.
This took an hour and forty-five minutes. This saves time.
Sometimes I can stretch these three walks into three hours, just because of coming back home, piddling around, taking a bathroom break, perhaps getting another coffee, etc.
The little minutes wasted add up.
Another good example of applying Hell No thinking to a Hell Yeah.
The other two One Hit Wonders are more about saying Hell No.
No to spending 2–3 hours per day following the interesting YouTube algorithmic suggestions.
No to listening to every single podcast episode because I subscribe to the show. And No to them in general, because they are often a waste of time and just pure BS digital distractions.
No to watching TV and streaming shows as a way to “escape” reality,
etc.
However, this also takes time.
I spent a couple of hours last week searching for new podcasts that might have more relevant research insights on topics of interest.
Then I took time to sample the ones that looked like they had promise.
And while I was walking this morning, I was listening to one of the podcasts I thought/think has value.
And then I hear a ping in my ears.
Oh, a text from Xfinity, my internet provider.
“Return Unused Equipment to Reduce Your Bill.”
Oh, jeez, not that damn text again.
Back in June, I had to wrestle with the monopolistic beast that is Xfinity to get a better price and plan.
I thought I had done so and it was a done deal.
Evidently, they switched my “cable” TV, which I have not watched one time this summer, to “streaming” through my Wi-Fi.
Thus, they want their antiquated cable box back.
How do I know?
It took 15 minutes, and it’s still not done.
I will get charged $14 per month until I return the cable box to one of their stores, which is 30 minutes away.
Even saying Hell No takes time.
Jeez, what is wrong with this world?
Makes you wonder sometimes, right?
So, is there a difference between a Hell Yes and a Hell Yeah?
I think so.
What we are covering here is saying Yeah to the things you sometimes want to say No to because of things like fear, doubt, avoidance, or other factors that keep you stuck.
In my own journey, post-FIRE, I am beginning to see that I have probably been saying Yes too much, and not enough Hell No.
What I really want is to incorporate the real Hell Yeahs of what it takes to move towards the life of my dreams.
We’ll continue this conversation in the next week.
But for now, the 30-minute timer just went off.
so, see you on the Highway to Yeah tomorrow with more special goodness.