Scour the web and you’ll hear tons of advice on when to say “yes” to opportunities – generally early on in your career – and no to opportunities, because saying “yes” later on means, by default, that you’re saying “no” to everything else that comes up during the time you’re handling that “yes”.
What about a different approach?
How about crafting your own system for saying yes or no? When have you said yes and it felt good and led to something great? When have you said no, despite how hard it was, and it turned out to be the right thing you needed to free yourself up creatively?
With each yes and no, update your system and make little tweaks so that with each new opportunity you get better and better at feeling out the situation, and having the courage to answer the way YOU want to answer, not based on someone else’s arbitrary rules.