Last weekend, I saw a couple of posts about NOvember. I was intrigued. I’d heard of November and Movember, but NOvember was new to me. In fact, a quick look at the Days of the Year website that I depend on to tell me these things turned up nothing.

How I Heard About NOvember

Although I usually avoid labelling myself a minimalist, I’m always looking for ways to simplify my life. For that reason, I follow a lot of writers and bloggers in the minimalism genre because their content is a perfect antidote to the daily barrage of advertising that tells us more, not less, is the key to a happy life.

The first post, A Reminder to Say No to What Steals Your Joy, came from No Sidebar. A day or two later, when I saw A Minimalist November  from Julie at Rich in What Matters, I discovered NOvember is a trend I can get behind.

Learning to Say No

Every day, the world bombards us with buy more, do more, and be more messages. Saying no feels like swimming against the current, so it’s difficult for a lot of us to flex our “NO” muscle. Learning to say no takes practice but, as you do it more, you’ll see it’s a habit that can reduce your stress and simplify your life.

When faced with any purchase, social event, or new project, one of the first questions to ask yourself is whether this is something you really want or need. Will it add value to your life? Is the financial or time cost worth it?

In How essentialism can help you get more out of life, I shared some of my learnings from Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. One of the key takeaways from that book is if something isn’t a clear yes, it should be a no.

Learning to say no involves slowing down and listening to that little interior voice. Is it giving you a clear and resounding yes? If not, and the voice is giving you a wishy-washy maybe, saying no should be easy.

Things You Can Say NO to

If you’re willing to give NOvember a try, let’s look at some things you could say no to.

• Social engagements, especially those with people who don’t bring you joy.
• Projects and commitments that don’t align with your personal values or support your longer-term goals.
• Buying things you don’t need. This includes fast fashion, single-use items, household items, cosmetics, and anything you might find yourself decluttering a year or two down the road.
• The need to impress others. Do what makes you happy and surround yourself with people who accept you as you are.
• Influencers! Ignore the Joneses, the Kardashians, or whatever other celebrity influencers are vying for your time and money. Remind yourself there will always be someone with more, newer, or better stuff than you. If what you have is enough for you, you don’t need the latest and greatest of anything.
• Black Friday shopping. Consider Buy Nothing Day instead. And while you’re at it, say no to Cyber Monday and the latest marketing gimmick Travel Tuesday. As an alternative, making a charitable donation on Giving Tuesday will do you, and the recipient, good.

For more inspiration on doing less and simplifying life, check out some of my earlier posts here on Wise & Shine:

• Breaking the cycle of overachievement
• Say good-bye to FOMO and hello to JOMO
• Reduce stress by rethinking your holiday to do list
• How essentialism can help you get more out of life

Things You Can Say YES to

Once you get into the habit of saying no, you’ll free up time, space, and money to say YES to more positive things. This NOvember, set a goal to say yes to:

• More sleep
• More physical activity
• More gratitude
• More learning
• More listening
• More family time

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Thanks to No Sidebar and Rich in What Matters for inspiring this post. For anyone looking for excellent content on simplifying life, these two sites are terrific places to start.

As the holiday season approaches, building a new habit of saying no will set you up for success heading into 2025 and will free up space for what really matters. Perhaps we need to make 2025 the year of less!

What’s on your list that you can say no to this NOvember? Drop me a comment below with your thoughts.

Learn more about me in my bio and on my personal blog at BoomerEcoCrusader.com. You can also find me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.