The Power of Saying “Yes”

In a world full of “no’s,” and “not enough’s,” why is it so important that we start saying “yes” to ourselves?

We all live with choice. What choices are you making? 

If you truly said “yes” to yourself in every aspect of your life, what would that look like? What would saying “yes” to yourself look like today? And not “yes” to yourself in a selfish, ego-based way. “Yes” to your heart and soul. “Yes” to your true desires, callings, and prompts.

Would you write that book? Go for that job? Take that trip? Go on that date? Take that chance?

The Original 6-Month Experiment 

One of the reasons that the 6 Months to Live original experiment is so powerful is because that question has you face your deepest, truest desires. When I first started this experiment over 13 years ago, saying “yes” looked like moving to San Francisco to go for my Dream job (even though it was a recession, I knew no one in San Francisco, and I only had $1,000 to my name at the time). My brain thought that was crazy. 

My heart said “yes.” And I listened.

Heart Language

Most people don’t know this, but before 6 Months to Live and long before The Dream Academy, there has always been something I call Heart Language. I call it that because I first heard it in Ningyuan, the small rural Chinese town where I volunteer-taught middle school and high school right after graduating from college.

I fell in love with a local. Two weeks into us first getting to know each other, me with no Mandarin ability at the time, and him with almost no English ability, we didn’t have much we could say to one another. And yet, his words changed my life forever.

He looked at me one evening at dinner with such loving kindness and said, “I know your heart,” and then tapped on his own and said, “xin li hua.” 

I looked up “xin li hua” and discovered that it literally translates as “the heart’s inner language,” or “the language inside the heart.”

Follow Your “Yes”

It was this language that brought me to China. It was this language that allowed me to connect so profoundly with my students and the locals in the town. Most importantly, it’s this language that is available to all of us if we choose to listen.

Your heart, your “yes” is the gateway to your soul. To what matters most in your life. Heart Language led me to this experiment, to traveling all over the world, to starting a business.

I have used Heart Language for everything in my life–from career decisions to marrying the love of my life to finding perfect homes all over the world.

So why am I talking about this now? 

Anyone who personally knows me, knows that I’ve been talking about this for close to 16 years, but I have kept it mostly private until the past couple of years.

Why?

Honestly, it was because I was afraid it was too “woo” and that no one would take me seriously. That if I talk about the heart and the soul and the importance of aligning with who we truly are and bringing that into our lives and our careers, that it would be dismissed.

I’m Saying “Yes” to My Heart, and I hope you do too.

We are not here to dim our light. We are so much brighter when we light up with our passions and our purpose and what actually matters to us. If there’s one thing that the “6 Months to Live” experiment has taught me all these years, it’s that life is short. It’s not guaranteed, so have the courage to live.

I always go back to one of my favorite articles, The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying. The number one regret is “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” Can you imagine in your final moments thinking, I wasted this life being someone else?

That’s why I’m stepping up and speaking out. I’m finally writing the book, Heart Language, that I’ve always longed to write.

I’m saying “yes” to myself, to my heart, and to my soul.

It’s Your Choice

Will you say “yes?”