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Do You Really Fear People’s Rejection?
In high school, I was dared to ask out this really cute girl. I didn’t have to do it, I really didn’t mind being called a chicken but I was really attracted to her and I didn’t want to miss out.
I remember reading pick-up artist literature to help psych myself up and I started to unconsciously visualize how the interaction would go. When I went up to her I rehearsed what I had been rehearsing in my mind for days, but I was shaking like a leaf. But at the end of my torture came her email address. I was successful and for the rest of the afternoon, I was on cloud 99.
A lot of people have told me that the only way to get over the fear of rejection is to just put yourself out there and get rejected over and over until you develop an immunity to it. I didn’t listen to them. I won’t knock it but I couldn’t do it. I knew I was a special kind of sensitive that couldn’t put himself in harm’s way. Ten thousand years of humanity’s survival tactics were not about to be undone by such a simple tactic.
I knew that the people who were suggesting these strategies were way more extroverted and less sensitive. If they were in my shoes, they’d be just like me — afraid and only willing to move when certain.
Unfortunately, the fear of rejection will hold you back from the things, events and the people you value. As life…
