A Divine Truth Telling:The Art of the Enlightened NO!

I realized as I was going through my calender, there were some engagements and appointments that just left me feeling "yucky".  Now the occasional pap smear or dental appointment doesn't really apply here because although there are things that I would rather be doing, those are must do's in my opinion for maintaining health.
But those are not the kind of appointments I am speaking of here.  I am talking about the engagements and people that I just don't feel good being around.
Example, I belong to a start-up group and I had done a lot of work helping with the promotion, creating blogs, and websites at the expense of my own entrepreneurial pursuits.  That was a choice I made, I totally get that. However, I became resentful because I felt the work I'd done wasn't even being utilized.  I decided that I needed to take a step back and really figure out what really, and I mean really resonated with me.
I remembered reading in Gay Hendricks book, "The Big Leap",  where he talked about staying in your zone of genius. He describes the zone of genius as a place where you have transcended time and space and you are totally connected to Source and you are doing the work you love.  There is a spirit of synchronicity where things just flow and that is where most of us creatives want to be right?
Gay recommends that if you want to stay in your zone of genius, then you have to say no to the things that are not congruent with your values.  In comes the Enlightened No.  It basically means you are saying no to people and appointments that leave you feeling yucky but you are doing it from a place of love. For example, he gave this response for declining a request asked of you very lovingly.
"No, I cant at this time AND thank you for asking me."
He says by using the word AND, you are continuing to include(which is what love does) rather than using the word "but" which is used to exclude. Interesting huh?
I do believe it is important to offer selfless service to the world and I also believe that you can do it in a way that serves you as well.  You can give of yourself without giving up yourself.  Just use the Enlightened NO!