Learning to say "no" is a common assertiveness skill, but also learning to say "yes" and asserting yourself is key to taking advantage of opportunities and experiences you want in life. Assertiveness is about being aware of your needs and aligning your thinking to match them. For example, is work-family balance an important value to you but you're always too busy to achieve it? If yes, use assertiveness to grab opportunities for fitting in a family picnic, an evening family card game, or a day together with your family at a farmer's market. It's easy to avoid the stress of juggling priorities by simply not doing things like this, but assertiveness can help you behave more opportunistically so things you truly value don't pass you by, leaving you to regret later what you didn't do.