I spent the day with Oprah last month. That may not be a big deal for you, but I am a huge fan of her show Super Soul Sunday and her magazine and her most current work.

As if spending the day with Oprah wasn’t already awesome enough, Brene Brown (of thebest TED talk in the history of life), Liz Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) and a whole bunch of other amazing speakers were going to be there too. It was set up to be kinda like a TED for personal development. In other words, I’m all over that biz.

This isn’t a humble brag (well, sort of… I mean how cool is that?), but more I want to share the story of how that day even came to be.

Have you always wondered how people end up doing cool things? I know I do! It always seemed so elusive. What are they doing differently?

How do people end up in the audience of their favorite shows?
How do people end up front row center at rock shows?
How do people make these things happen?

For me, spending the day with Oprah came to be because I kept saying YES to what I wanted – even though it would have been “easier” to say NO.

The first yes was very small: liking Super Soul Sunday on Facebook. Easy peezy.

The next yes was raising my hand when they called for audience members. <–You’d think this one would have been easy, but that’s when my NO button kept flashing. Say yes to this was surprisingly hard, guys.

Everything kept pointing to saying NO. Because saying YES meant suspending my current reality of full time caregiver to a preschooler who at that point hadn’t even returned to school, that I am a teacher spouse two weeks into the school year and living 378 miles from where the event would happen. Not to mention having a zero dollar budget for spontaneous events and who really does this kind of stuff anyway?

Even though NO seemed like the logical answer, I said YES anyway.

I figured if I kept saying yes it would either work out or it wouldn’t. The tickets to the event were free, so I’d only need lodging, transportation and the full cooperation of my entire family.

No biggie, right?

I decided to keep saying yes until I was forced to say NO.

I wanted to see what would happen when I took things one step at a time. What if I just kept saying yes?

The long and short of it, is I kept saying YES and asking for what I wanted.

On my personal Facebook, I asked for a place to stay in LA. Within 5 minutes of posting, a friend volunteered a guest room and parking spot within 15 minutes of the venue. – CHECK

I asked my friend (also a mama to littles under 5) to come with me and she offered to drive. – CHECK

I asked my husband to take one for the team and handle 36 hours of solo parenting during one of the busiest times of the year (which is a huge deal and I THANK YOU, sweetheart!) <– he said YES.– CHECK

Here’s the thing I keep learning over and over:

When I ask for what I want, a lot of the time I get it.

If I don’t ask for what I want, I just get resentful.

What do you want to say yes to, but maybe a head full of noes is telling you can’t have it? What if you said YES and worked out the details later?

Sending you lots of compassion and love,

Tami xox

PS – If something in this (or any post) resonates with you and you think someone you know might like it too, please forward it to a friend.

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