The Struggle to Say No - Ciaran Murtagh

I struggle to say no. If someone asks me to do something - for money I might add, I'm not a mad man - I find it hard to turn it down. 

I don't know what it is that makes it so hard, but I have an idea.

My Dad grew up on a farm in the west of Ireland without running water or electricity. He sacrificed a lot to get me to where I am, and the idea that I might turn down money for something as simple as writing a story when he and his family worked so hard to get enough to buy something to eat feels all wrong. 

Then there's my own personal circumstances. 

I had my first child when I was 17. All of my professional life I've been working to put bread on the table - not for me, but for her. If I'm vain enough to try and make a living from writing stories, then I better make sure nobody else suffers for that, especially not my own children. There are other ways to make a regular income, if I'm turning my back on them then the alternative better pay. 

And moving on from that, I only started making a decent living in my late 30s. It's hard to shirk the hustle. It's also hard not to think it might all be taken away from you as quickly as it arrived.  Fortune is fickle, if you currently bask in its glow - make hay! 

So all of that leads me to the point I find myself. I turned down work and it feels really odd. 

Added to everything else, this particular moment in history makes it even harder to do. There are plenty without work or wage, to have the audacity to turn one's nose up at opportunity - today of all days! - seems particularly graceless.  

But here we are. 

It's happened twice in my professional life. I turned down the chance to work on a Moshi Monsters TV show because it was morally bankrupt, and I turned something else down this week because it just wasn't for me. 

As someone who is self employed and who has struggled for two decades to get opportunities to write for money, to turn them down seems counter intuitive.  But truth be told, it's vital. As Kenny Rogers said-  you gotta know when to hold them and know when to fold them. 

It's taken me a long time to be happy saying 'no', I'm still learning how, but sometimes you've got to listen to what your gut is telling you, and just bite the bullet. It means there's more time for you to do the stuff you do love. 

Speaking of which... 

This month 19 episodes of Danny and Mick debuted on CBBC - I had a hand in all of them. You can also see my work in Crackerjack and Big Fat Like, also on CBBC and Dave Spud is starting on CITV. See what you can achieve when you start saying 'no.'