Laters, Baby
On Learning to Say Maybe Later When Every Opportunity Feels Like a Yes
There’s this mantra we’ve all been fed: never let an opportunity pass you by.
It sounds noble. It sounds ambitious. But if you’re someone who is multipassionate—someone who feels pulled in ten directions at once, who has more dreams than time—you know how quickly that mantra turns into a trap.
Because every opportunity feels like a door you have to walk through.
Every invitation feels like proof you’re finally being seen.
And every “yes” feels like the path to becoming who you were meant to be.Until it doesn’t.
Until you’re sitting at your laptop at midnight, with the pit of guilt in your stomach, asking yourself: Why did I agree to this? Why do I keep doing this to myself?
This is the part we don’t name out loud:
The fear of disappointing someone who believes in us.
The quiet panic that if we say no, the offers will stop coming.
The shame of admitting that even “values-aligned” opportunities can still exploit us.
The exhaustion of being grateful and resentful at the same time.
I was reminded of this recently when I received an invitation from a national non-profit to be their keynote speaker. The kind of opportunity that once upon a time I would have killed for. My immediate reaction was to say yes. To prove my worth, to prove I was “enough.”
But then came the pause. The uncomfortable moment where the question shifted from: Does this excite me? to At what cost?
Because here’s the thing multipassionate people rarely admit: every yes comes with a hidden trade-off. It’s never just a 15-minuate talk. It’s days of preparation. It’s the mental weight of performing. It’s the opportunity cost of the work that doesn’t get done, the meals missed, the family moments sacrificed.
And when that “yes” comes with a cheque that undervalues your labour, it’s not just about the money. It’s about the message you’re sending yourself: that your time, your energy, your life can be bought for less than it’s worth.
So I’ve been learning something new. A practice that makes my throat tighten every time I try to embody it: laters, baby.
Not every yes is right for you, right now.
Not every opportunity needs to be taken just because it looks shiny.
And not every sacrifice is worth making just to prove you’re capable.
I write this in bold because you probably need to re-read this a couple times until it sinks into your unconscious bank of “words of affirmations we don’t want to tell ourselves.”
If you’re a multipassionate person, you already know the truth: your hunger will always be bigger than your capacity. The invitations will never stop. The ideas will never stop. The only way through is learning to advocate for yourself in ways that feel almost unbearable.
It’s mourning the opportunities that aren’t meant for this season.
It’s sitting with the fear that you’re being greedy when you ask for more.
It’s holding the paradox that you can be grateful and underpaid at the same time.
And maybe most of all: it’s remembering that your worth is not measured by how many doors you say yes to, but by the courage to close the ones that don’t honour you.
So maybe later isn’t a cop-out. It’s the most radical thing we can say.
P.S. And if you’ve ever worried you’re asking “too much”? Double it.
NEEDED this, thank you! 🙏🏾💝