Year of yes – Shonda Rhimes

You never say yes to anything

Words spoken by someone close, or a stranger, can change your direction 

What if you allow yourself to change and become someone else?

Shondaland, her business, has become Shonda Rhimes´ extended family. That is amazing. Her made up friends, her living friends. The air that she breathes and lives for. This all thanks to her imagination. Her imagination has no ending. I am fascinated.

Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Private Practice and How to get away with murder. How many people know about these shows that we, some of us, slavishly followed? 

I have seen all four of the aforementioned series and have to say that they are fantastic series. The titles of the series almost speak for themselves. Relationships, problems, successes, personal dilemmas, happiness, love. The topics covered are many and it is exciting to get to know the actors. Shonda has done such an amazing job writing these series, the dialogues and the stories.

To be able to create your own empire based on fictional characters, thanks to the mindset of Shonda Rhimes, is a great thing.

Shonda Rhimes calls herself a liar. Exciting to say something like that. Early on, you find out why she says that. Give yourself the opportunity to read the book to find out.

But now it’s not about us reading Shonda’s script. We’re seeing what she’s created with her imagination and letting us be drawn into it. She talks with great empathy about how her year of accepting everything affected her whole world. A lot was put on the line. 

Who am I? How have I lived? Have I wasted important years? A single word, a simple short three-letter word, a resounding yes, it can strike fear into us all. 

Because we leave our darling and well-known comfortable zone. It is with mixed feelings of horror that we all say yes from time to time, every now and then, to something we never thought we would be able to do. You grow as a person and you become the person you were actually meant to be.

               Comfort zone, leave it. Say Yes, Dare. Say yes to unexpected things without thinking too much. We usually regret the things we did not do, not the things we did. 

Shonda Rhimes lets us follow her journey through the year that changes her life. The urge to say yes even after those 365 days is strong and she longs for more opportunities, possibilities, chances and adventures to which she can say yes. It makes me happy to see her taking the step to face her fear. How she, who has been so extremely introverted, actually believes in herself as a person. She doesn’t just live by her fantasies. She lives for real.

The book is incredibly easy to read. The first page doesn’t contain many words. There are only few words. Will it continue to be so short on words? A person who writes for a living. Can that be true? No, it doesn’t. Page after page is filled with her words about her years of saying YES to things. Things she never even imagined being a part of.

So Yes to Life, Yes to Challenges, Yes to Happiness, Yes to Fulfilling, Yes to Fear.

Saying that short word yes changes a lot and we should all try it a lot more. Because we grow with pride and smile at ourselves for what we do.

Just give it a go and see what changes you and who you become. It might be that this is the person you envy and want more of. You might even fall in love with yourself, your new you! Do you dare to say yes to this change? I did and I really like what I see.

Conclusion: be the lead character of your own life.

Own it, and you owe it to yourself. 

 

Why read this book

Inspiration to let go of fear and get ready to see something new being added to your own valuable life. If you want to get motivated to take that step from being an introvert to an extrovert.

 

Three main take-aways from reading this book:

1. How important it is to be open and listen to what others think about you

2. Life is full of changes

3. Yes or no, these words are important 

Questions and reflections:

1. Did it ever happen to you that someone said one or a couple of words to you that made you realize that you are not the one you might think you are, but a different one in the eyes of others?

2. Would you value and appreciate introverted or extroverted people differently?

3. Do you have someone that you trust deeply and who could motivate you to dare more?

“Destination is saying yes to the calling we were born with” – Alberto Villoldo