2008 was a great year with movies such as The Dark Knight, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Seven Pounds and many more, but one of my top 5 movies from 2008 is without doubt Yes Man with Jim Carrey. As a comedy the movie is far from being something special but I truly love the message in it.
Life! We are all living it — or are we?
What is a Yes Man?
Forget everything you have previously learned about the traditional Yes Man who sits quietly and always agrees with his employer or superior. The 21 century Yes Man celebrates life and takes advantage of every opportunity by always saying yes when his friends asks him to tag along.
You’re dead, Carl. You say “no” to life and therefore, you’re not living. You make up excuses to the people around you and to yourself. You’re stuck in the same dead end job you’ve had for years. You don’t have anything close to a girlfriend, and you lost the love of your life because she couldn’t be with someone who didn’t live theirs.
In the movie Jim Carrey manages to learn Korean, learn how to play guitar, learn how to fly and finds his true love by deciding to become a Yes Man.
The secret behind becoming a Yes Man is simply to stop hiding behind your excuses. Instead of saying “no”, just say “yes” and go out with your friends and have the time of your life. I promise when you grow old you will fret all the things you did not do and remember all the things you did.
Yes is the new no! Start learning to say yes to life today!
Two Week Challenge
Starting Monday next week I want you to become a Yes Man and say yes to everything in life for the next fourteen days. I promise you it will not only change your view on life but also bring you out on adventures you never thought would become true.
When you have completed your fourteen days challenge I want you to come back and share your experiences below by leaving a comment. What did you take part in? Tell me about your two weeks as a true Yes Man.
Yes Man Trailer
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Does that mean I have to say yes every time my daughter wants money?
Really, it is a good tactic, I may play along with you and see what happens (well except for the $$ questions from my daughter!)
I would actually go all the way and also say yes to your daughter. How much money can she spend in a two week period? There might come something great out of it. I also recommend you to watch the Yes Man-movie before or after your challenge. You might get a different point of view after watching it.
I actually do say yes to her, I was just being sarcastic
, she is only 4 and a quarter is like winning the lottery to her….
Oh, then it’s going to get a lot more expensive.
I’m afraid of this challenge, but I’m going for it and I’ll let you know how it goes. By the way I really love the movie, so much that I’ll watch it again now
The movie is truly worth watching again. Just remember to avoid telling your friends about it or they might take advantage of it and force you into running naked, etc. I’m looking forward to hear how it goes.
Hi Stefan!
Love this new design of your blog. You’re right about the excuses that people use as a cover. I’d like to take that challenge but should I say yes to things that are against my fundamental principles? I’m afraid I can’t but of course I want to know how great this life and world can be if I say yes to (almost) all offers.
Cheers!
P.S. : Good luck with your 365-post-in-365-days ambition! I’m working on it, too! Google loves frequently updated blogs, so I heard.
Well, it depends. As long as you are not inflicting anyone pain, psychical as mental, I say go for it. Are you thinking about anything in particular?
hey stefan! my sister and i are watching the yes man movie and i seen it atleast 5 times and i thought about saying yes to everything and then i typed how to become a yes man on google and s here i am and i am going to start saying yes to everything and by the way i 14 years old
Thanks for y0ur post. I like this movie to. It was through a friend of a friend, who recommended me this movie this time last year. Like yourself i like the message too.
I said yes to accompanying and to giving direction to a friend who was driving for the first time beyond the local suburb today. For my friend it was a big deal to go outside her comfort zone.
I am glad I said yes to help my friend, because I have helped my friend to build confidence when driving.
Also, I convinced my friend to say yes, to watching YES MAN today. It was a movie i have told my friend to watch for more than a year, and finally my friend has seen it. Again, I am glad that my friend said yes, because watching this film has given my friend more confidence to do things that my friend would not normally do.
Some friends just needs some support and encouragement. I like giving my friends reasons/benefits on why they should…for eg. go out/see this movie etc.
sometimes that helps a person who is comfortably in their zone/or are affraid of changes…to reconsider.
I DID IT I SAID YES !! For two weeks i have done amazing things. At the age of 19 I know live with four of my friends having the time of my lives.
I have learnt to play three instruments, joined various groups in uni and have gained hundreds of friends. I FEEL NOTHING CAN STOP ME!!
I was a yesman for three days until I found myself in a parkingly lot drinking a twelve pack in broad daylight at a tattoo expo, when I found my new friends asking me to get a tattoo. I wanted one, but I broke and said no because I have strong feelings about this. In retrospect I would have gotten it, and I think the only way now I can go and continue having the time of my life is to go out and get this tattoo. But what do I get, and where? I’ve never liked anything enough to want it on my body permanently, and well, I like my body. What the hell do I do?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2010/may/02/spencer-tunick-photography
YES MAN!!
Andrea.x
I did this yes man thing for 14 days. I had to say yes to breaking up with the love of my life -> my girlfriend of 2 years, I had to sleep with 5 people, I had to give little kids cigarettes, I had to get wasted and swear at old people in church. Then I got the crap beat out of me. And worst of all….I had to write all these lies on this site. None of this actually happened…but what if it did. You’d all feel SO bad. Oh and by the way, I actually did this challenge. It made me realize I have been missing out on a lot of fun, and my life style did take a good turn. However, I am A student and have summers off. So it was all good.
ok i will give this challenge a go starting now. let you know how it went in 2 weeks
i feel like my life is kinda coming to end.cuz my girlfriend left me without telliing me reason,my firends ask me to hang out,or to have some fun,but its just that i make excuses everytime.if any one ask for help i make excuses.i feel like there is no fun in life.i felt thats a life my friend a real life which sucks totally.but two days back i saw this movie ‘yes man’ and i felt is there really a kinda programme thing of yes man to make our life more liveable .more of fun.more enjoyable, i want to start a new life with this yes thing so please ‘Stefan’ if you colud help me out please reply…..{soory i m not that good in english}???????
I am going to do the challenge for a month instead and try saying yes to everything and seeming im still in school i will be in some deep s*** if i say yes to everything but y not it will all be fun :L
When you are done you’ll have a great story to tell.
Hey there ^^
I’m taking the challenge, starting right now =)
Hate to admit it, but yeah, I’m a No man :/
And right now, I have nothing special to do, so why not give this a try ^^
I’ll let you know what happened, I’m off to see the movie for the 3rd time now.
Kanji
Just saw the movie Yes Man, the message hit home. Went on google and found your blog. I’ll take your challenge. Recently flunked out of college, still looking for a job and making excuses has become a habbit. So let’s see what my life will be like after saying “yes” for 14 days.
I’ll let you know.
Well yes man was probably aimed at adults, but i have to say it worked quiet well for me. Watched yes man just before the summer holidays, and well basicaly i’d spend a whole year hanging around, isolating myself, in the library. But once i started to say “yes” it was quiet amazing how quickly my social life grew,in just one holiday, snorting powered pepper is probably not a good idear as i though it was at the time, but still it was a laugh, with people i can now call good friends. I’m not sure what would of happened if i never watched yes man, and started saying yes, i suppose if i didn’t change, the isolation might of turned me emo. But gladdly that never happened, and if it wasn’t for yes man, i probably would even be writing this, i’d of probably just ignored your request for a comment. So my time as a yes man was wonderful, and still is
This may be late but idk I guess its never to late to say yes! I am taking the challenge starting Monday and its Saturday now this is going to be insane..lol
I will try this challenge, in fact the only reason I am commenting is because I said yes to the option of commenting
Ok. I love this movie and i’m up for a challenge ! Considering giving it a crack for the first time. I feel stupid doing it. But it seems alot of people have learned alot from it. I have to go to court next week for DUI this should be interesting. eeek
well, i am a little late on this trend of saying yes. i watched the movie twice THIS WEEK!! very inspiring. i am a new yes man, and cant wait to see what experiences it leads to. i dont know how long i am giong to do it but if it goes well i might just have to continue it as a positive way of life.
Hey Stefan! I’m going to start tommorow, thanks for the post. I’ve been staying home a lot from school, not going to partys, not talking to friends, girls etc staying in even on the weekends and was loosing out on life because of it. I was hiding behind every excuse I could find .. I read your post and hey you nailed it! I’m very excited to get out there again and ill let you know how it all goes down ttyl
What if all the stuff I’m being asked to do is illegal stuff and a bunch of drugs