Grow a spine! (or: How to decline with grace?)

I'm a pleaser.

I work hard -- too hard, usually -- to be liked and trusted, and when it works in my favour (when I'm getting the affection, the companionship, the career opportunities that I hope for), that can be rewarding, but overall, I think I hate it. I think it sucks being a yes-woman. I think I need to follow the advice I'm always giving others, and grow a spine.

I need to stop turning myself inside out, upside down and backwards to be able to say yes to every opportunity offered up to me by anybody at any time. Not every offer is given in order to do me a personal favour -- regardless of how guilty and ungrateful it makes me feel to even consider saying no. Not every possibility will take me in a way I actually want to go. Not every missed chance is a last chance. Not every opportunity needs to be seized regardless of what i'm working on at the moment or planning to do. Not every impression is a lasting impression. Not every disagreement will burn bridges.

I do not have to say yes, always, to everything put in my path by everyone.

Now I just have to figure out how to remember this, and act on it.