Do one thing everyday that scares you. Eleanor Roosevelt
Why? Why should we do one thing every day that scares us?
Jia Jiang has a ted talk where he discusses his fear of rejection. He forced himself to complete 100 rejection challenges to get more comfortable with rejection. He also posted a video showing the coolest rejection challenge where he asks a Krispy Kreme donut shop to make his donuts to look like the olympic rings.
I have a fear of rejection. Not the romantic kind of rejection, although I’m probably lucky I’m a woman, because if I was a dude, I doubt I would have had the courage to ask someone out. But I have an overall fear of rejection. For example, I don’t throw parties, because what if no one comes? I don’t stop to talk to people because what if they are too busy to talk to me? Well, I tell myself, I’ll just be too busy first.
I recently conquered a small rejection challenge: My neighbor was replacing his fence and I am on the hunt for reclaimed wood. I saw my neighbor outside working on his fence and decided to go ask what his plans are for his wood. Our backyards abut, but I had to walk around a few houses to get to where he was working. During my short walk, my mind started tweaking. I even did a 180 on the sidewalk as I tried to talk myself out of asking such a silly question. My mind started rationalizing: “We don’t really need that wood, we can get pallets from work. (Yes, my mind refers to me as “we”.) How are we even going to transport the wood if he says yes, we don’t have a trailer, we’ll be causing such a hassle, we’ll have to ask other people for help, including Damon (My hubby).” It was pretty funny to observe how my mind reacted to my decision to ask a neighbor for discarded wood. My mind freaked out so hard that I decided I’d better ask, just for the challenge. I approached my hard-working neighbor and asked him what his plans were for the wood he had set aside. He said I couldn’t have it, that he was planning on reusing it. And then we chatted for a minute. I didn’t get the reclaimed wood, but I did complete a rejection challenge, and I’m super proud of it.
This may seem like a silly example to bolder people. But most of us face uncomfortable situations, and we can empower ourselves to face challenges and grow our circle of comfort.
So, here is my challenge: Do one thing everyday that scares you.
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