A positive attitude does much more than turn on the lights in ourrelationships. It magically connects us to serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before we said YES.     
- Earl Nightingale

During the celebration of his fiftieth wedding anniversary, I asked my great uncle Bill: "How did you stay happily married to aunt Mae for fifty years? People say she is a 'battle axe'."  At eleven years old, aunt Mae intimidated me. She was six feet tall, and dominated relationships with both her stature and her forceful personality.  Uncle Bill's answer was simple: "No matter what Mae asks, I answer Yes Dear."  Uncle Bill, a strong-willed gentleman in his own right, went on to explain that he said YES to his relationship with aunt Mae, not necessarily the things she asked.  He said that her specific requests were details to be ironed out sometime in the future.

YES and NO produce different relationships.  YES strengthens bonds and builds synergy.  NO, on the other hand, can be a dragon that scorches our relationships.  NO forces our partners to search for new ideas, new goals, new interests or new activities that allow the relationship to continue.  The importance of a relationship determines how many NOs will be tolerated before our partner abandons us to look for a more rewarding and satisfying relationship.  Based on the number of broken marriages, and strained professional and family relationships that exist today, there are too many NOs and not enough YESes.  That can change in the 21st century if we just say YES to each other.  If we just say YES to relationships, and just say YES to change and growth.

YES and NO are inseparable.  They always occur together.  When we go to bed, we say YES to sleep and NO to activities we might do if we stayed awake.  When we say YES to working overtime at work, we simultaneously say NO to the activities we might do with family and friends.  YES is not always positive, and NO is not necessarily negative.  Rather our YESes and NOs reveal our priorities, the things we consider to be most important in that instant of time.  Is the NO because we are choosing a bigger YES, or is it a NO without a viable alternative (a negative choice)?  For example, saying NO to getting out of bed in the morning is a positive choice when the objective is to give our bodies needed rest, but a negative choice when the NO is because we are bored or afraid to start the day.