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When you say 'yes' to others, make sure you are not saying 'no' to yourself.
Paulo Coelho
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Prioritizing others should not come at the expense of your own needs and desires.

This quote emphasizes the importance of maintaining a balance between helping others and taking care of oneself. While it's good to be supportive and agreeable, one must ensure that self-neglect does not occur as a result of always saying 'yes' to others, as this can lead to resentment and unhappiness in the long run.

Themes

Self-CareBoundariesRelationshipsPersonal GrowthSelf-Respect

In practice

Example use cases

During a team meeting when discussing workload, I might say this quote to remind everyone to maintain their personal boundaries.

More from Paulo Coelho

I'm not doing anything, and yet I'm also doing the most important thing a man can do: I'm listening to what I needed to hear from myself.
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We need to clear our minds of bad thoughts.
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Having the courage to take the steps we always wanted to take is the only way of showing that we trust in God.
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The fool who loves giving advice on our garden never tends his own plants
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Sometimes the Warrior feels as if he were living two lives at once.
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