“I realized just because something is a good opportunity or a good paycheck, it doesn’t mean it’s right. By simply accepting what the world was offering to me, I was losing my own voice,” the now 38-year-old added. “I was reacting instead of asking myself what I really wanted.”
“Redirecting your energy in one area can mean sprinting in another. The key is that I was choosing where my energy went instead of letting others choose for me,” she said. “A wonderful part of giving yourself that space is you can look back and see the distance you’ve traveled.”
“Choose what excites you. Choose what challenges you. Choose what gives you room to grow. And just as importantly, choose to let go of what no longer serves you,” she said. “This will give you the freedom to evolve and become exactly who you are meant to be. The world only becomes more interesting and accommodating and marvelous when people show up as they truly are.”
Duff’s instinct to say yes to opportunities early in her career is not surprising—it’s a choice many ambitious people might make when doors unexpectedly begin opening.
At the same time, others have echoed Duff’s realization that saying yes to everything can ultimately become counterproductive.
“[Jobs] had an idea of focus that you say ‘no’ to a thousand things to say ‘yes’ to the one that’s truly important,” Cook said. “And that when you do something, you should do it at an excellence level where good isn’t good enough: it has to be insanely great.”
