The Rejection
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality”.
Jia Jiang is the creator of 100 days of rejection therapy. Back in 2012, Jia set out to become a great entrepreneur. They wanted all the attractive characteristics of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time. But Jia recognised he wasn’t born the complete package. If he wanted to acquire these traits, he needed to earn them.
Jia set out to first manage his fear of rejection. His strategy to do this is to seek one rejection on purpose every day for 100 days and vlog it for the world to see.
Day 1 he wished to borrow $100 from a stranger. By day 100 he wanted to interview Barack Obama. That’s some level of growth and aspiration driven by the lack of fear of rejection. The entire series creates some beautiful moments like episode 54 where Jia finds himself dancing with a waitress. It really is a brilliant idea. And it doesn’t always have to be grand moments!
The question that popped into my mind is how can we use rejection therapy in our own lives in a natural way to become less controlled by the fear associated with rejection.
Through habits, different actions, tasks, and behaviours become engrained in our lives. And we become more efficient when we perform them every day. That’s the reason Jia becomes so good at handling rejection. Over the 100 days, it became engrained as a habit. The positive emotions associated with seeking rejection began to overshadow the negative ones, such as fear and anxiety. Because what’s the worst that can happen right?
Sure, someone can say no. That can hurt initially, but having clarity, in reality, diminishes our suffering in imagination.
It can be implemented into the structure of our lives without change. If you grab yourself a morning coffee, ask if you can have it for free. Ask a stranger you pass in the street if you can tell them a joke. Or even just smile at them and see if they smile back! We can easily implement rejection therapy into our lives.
We worry more about things before they happen, and then realise after that they weren’t as bad as we feared. By combining this fear in the imagination through the scope of rejection and coupling it with a habitual task, Jia set himself on the path to becoming a successful entrepreneur and he achieved it. Consider how you can break down your fear through your habits and like Jia, become invincible.
Link to Rejection Therapy Website: https://www.rejectiontherapy.com/100-days-of-rejection-therapy