What is the greatest measure of power?

For many years, I believed it was the ability to say yes to every opportunity presented.

After all, those of us with great aspirations often train ourselves to seize everything — to leap at every offer, to perform for more and more people, to constantly seek what is greater and larger.

But if we pause, and take a moment to truly see what we are doing, we may begin to notice an endless loop of performances for others.

And if we pause a bit longer, we may recognize the cost — the quiet sacrifices imposed on our personal lives, on those we love, on moments lost.

So, for me, I have come to believe that the ability to say no is perhaps the most powerful thing in the world.

It is not a loud no.

It is not an angry no.

It is a defiant whisper.

A whisper that says: I am breaking out of this corral, leaping beyond the fences where so much of my life has been spent on behalf of those who asked for more — and offered more.

A whisper that says: yes, that third house might be beautiful, but I would rather have more time to watch the sunset with the one I love. I would rather see my children’s lives unfold in person, not through a screen. I would rather touch the trees and feel the wind on my face.

Are you ready for your own defiant whisper?

I think you are.