A yes list for anyone who keeps saying “maybe next time”
I didn’t plan any of this. No vision board, no habit tracker, no dramatic “new month new me” announcement on a Sunday evening. I just started saying yes a little faster than usual, before my brain had time to come up with a solid reason not to. And somehow, May became the most interesting month I’ve had in a long while.
This isn’t a bucket list. These aren’t life-changing, move-to-Bali, quit-your-job moments. They’re small. They’re ordinary. And that’s exactly the point. Because breaking your routine doesn’t require a transformation. It just requires a yes before the no arrives. Here’s what happened when I started doing that.
1. I Sang Karaoke. Sober.
My friend suggested karaoke on a whim. My immediate instinct was to mentally calculate how long I could delay before finding an excuse. Instead, I said yes before I finished the thought.
We were number fourteen on the waiting list. I had the entire countdown to spiral. I could see the number getting closer. The stage was right there, in front of a full room. It was a holiday weekend, so everyone was out, everyone was loud, everyone was watching.
I walked up with nothing but a mocktail in my hand. No liquid courage. Just me and the microphone.
Here’s what nobody tells you about karaoke: the anticipation is the worst part. The moment you open your mouth, something shifts. You stop thinking about the audience and you start thinking about the song. By the second chorus I wasn’t performing anymore. I was just singing. And by the end, I was genuinely having fun.
Would alcohol have helped ease the nerves? Probably. Did I need it? Apparently not.
I knew my position the whole time – and I went up anyway. That’s the whole point.
2. Five Years in Zurich. Never Been to the Flea Market.
I went to the city with no plan. I just needed air, movement, a break from staring at the same walls. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular.
Then I spotted a flea market and thought: why not?
Five years living here. Not once had I stopped at one. It just wasn’t part of my routine, so it never crossed my mind as an option.
I walked around, taking it all in. And then I noticed an artist set up just outside the market, painting. He wasn’t selling anything. He was just creating, right there, in the open. I stopped to look and we ended up talking for a while. He was passionate in the way people are when something is truly theirs: painting, fashion, colour as a language. It was one of those unexpected conversations you don’t plan and don’t forget.
Before I left, I found a tiny handmade crochet cat at the market. The kind you hang on a bag or a keychain. I bought it for my mom, because she loves animals and because it was made by hand by someone who cared. It felt like the right thing to take home.
3. I Bought Rollerblades at the Airport and Used Them the Next Day.
The last time I went rollerblading I was twelve years old, in Nice, with my dad. I hadn’t thought about it once since then. It just quietly disappeared from my life, the way a lot of things do.
Then I walked past a pair at the airport and something clicked immediately. I missed this. Not as a memory, but as a feeling. I bought them on the spot and went out the very next day.
What I didn’t know, after five years living here, is that Zurich has an entire trail network for bikes and rollerblading right near the airport. I live five minutes away by bus. Five minutes. And I had never once looked it up.
Sometimes the city you think you know completely still has things to show you. You just have to actually go outside.
4. I Packed My Laptop and Left the House.
For as long as I can remember, I have studied at home. Same desk, same chair, same four walls. That was the routine and I never questioned it, until this month, when I sat down to work and produced absolutely nothing for hours.
So I left. I picked up my laptop and went.
I tried a coworking space first, a proper one where you can order a drink and sit next to people who are visibly getting things done. Then coffee shops. Starbucks. Wherever felt right.
And here’s what I figured out almost immediately: when people can see your screen, you actually use it. There’s something about being in public that activates a version of you that wants to look productive. You can’t scroll for forty minutes when someone might glance over. You focus faster. You get more done in two hours than you would in an entire day at home.
Turns out, sometimes productivity is just about who’s watching.
5. I Went to the Cinema Alone. Horror Movie. Zero Regrets.
I had never done this. Not once. Cinema has always been a group activity for me, friends, company, someone to grab when something terrifying happens on screen.
I went to Sihlcity Arena Cinemas, alone, and watched The Mummy.
Small warning: if you have a sensitive stomach, choose your snacks wisely before this one.
I wasn’t sure how it would feel walking in by myself. A little strange at first. But then the lights go down and none of that matters anymore.
What I didn’t expect was how calm it felt. No one checking their phone next to me. No compromising on what to watch or where to sit. I picked the film I wanted. I sat exactly where I wanted. I left when it was over, with no one waiting for me and no one to debrief with on the way home. Just me and my own thoughts.
It felt surprisingly like freedom. And it made me wonder how many other things I’ve been waiting to do with company, when actually I could have just gone alone.
You don’t need a better plan. You need a smaller yes. The kind you say before your brain has time to talk you out of it.
What’s one thing you’ve been putting off that you could say yes to this week? Drop it in the comments below.
Still stuck in the same routine? There’s a biological reason for that. Your brain has been training against you – and here’s the science behind it.
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