TED Tuesday: Rejection Therapy

Rejection sucks, doesn't it?

To not be wanted, to not be needed. To not be 'the right person for the job'. 

The fears of rejection and failure have often stopped me from doing many things in my life. Leaps and risks haven't been taken because I know how bad a "no" can feel. Something so small can crush your dreams and sometimes your spirit in the process. 

The fear of rejection is the most debilitating fear that I've ever experienced. Sometimes I'm afraid of no. Sometimes I'm afraid of yes. Afraid of a "no" because that immediate rejection is a shot to my ego and my self worth. It's a reflection on others' perception of me and what I'm worth. I'm equally afraid of a "yes" because what if the perception of me is great, but then I'm unable to deliver. I'm not the right person for the job, I fail miserably and disappoint whoever gave me that chance in the first place. 

I also fear rejection because even though I've felt it over and over - I'm still not used to it. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing - but it seems like life would be better if you were desensitized to the feeling. That would mean that rejection wouldn't hurt as bad and would allow you to carry forward much quicker than your usual earth-shaking catastrophe experiences. 

So hey - what would happen if you purposefully sought out rejection? If you asked people for things that you knew they would turn you down for - causing those "no's" to cut you less and less each time you heard one. That would make you less scared right? Sure the "no's" wouldn't be to things that significantly mattered in your world, but you'd at least become accustomed to asking for things and learning people's thresholds right?

Well I have a treat for you! 

Today's TED Talk goes over Jia Jiang's experiences as he subjected himself to 100 Days of Rejection Therapy to get over his fear. Watch the way that he surprised himself and his blog readers in the outrageous things he attempted (and really just how many he was not rejected for). 

Enjoy!

February Summary

This month seemed to hit me like a ton of bricks so I'm happy to wrap this one up a day early - want to join in with me? In an effort to not interrupt my weekly favorite: Throwback Thursday you're going to re-live this short & crazy month through the highs and we can all agree to ignore the way lows? Good.

Rather than looking at all of February's goals that I failed (#2, #3, #4, #6) let's focus on the ones that I embraced and made a priority in my life.

(via)

It was a great month for the Clean Breakfast challenge set out by Amanda from RunToTheFinish and I really don't feel like I had to work that hard at it. I have always felt that a good breakfast sets the tone for a good day, and certainly have never been one to think that means a muffin or something with the word glazed in the description. I even get upset with Dan when we sleep in on the weekend and before we know it - breakfast is really a brlunner (breakfast/lunch/dinner). Keys to accomplishing this goal were 1. Meal Prep 2. Instagram accountability checks 3. A community of like-minded bloggers and health enthusiasts sharing the same goal. Power in numbers!

I also happily encouraged Dan to play golf a few times and he only actually ended up going twice. I'm going to enjoy this summer when he gets up early for his summer weekend job and his early tee-times, he's a pretty bad influence on me when it comes to rise'n'shine and being productive on the weekends because there's nothing like staying in bed with no alarm to worry us. I'm proud of him for already being invited to represent his golf league in a tournament in April as tribute to his victory in September, 2012. C'mon baby!

I had great success at commenting on other blogger's posts and found myself paying more attention to what other ladies are writing about. It has also made me more aware of how I write and share information with you as my readers. It's an interesting phenomenon, this blogging world. I can read about the days and lives of people I've never met before and find myself feeling emotional attachments to them - getting excited about their engagements, feeling sympathy for their worries, anticipating their big news and drooling over their recipes - and have found myself caring more about what they have to say sometimes than keeping in touch with my real-life friends.  I'm sorry real friends - let's change that! Blogger friends, let's keep the conversation going!

I knocked out my four 10-mile runs early in the month as my mileage had to be earned mainly on the weekends. I was okay happy! with that because it turned out that we had excellent winter weather in the northwest where I was able to go glove-less and even wear shorts! As this posts, I have 13 miles remaining for the month and will easily be able to accomplish that with a long run this evening and a short one to wrap it up tomorrow. 

Great Memories:

• An amazing Valentine's Day with my sweetheart


• Adopting my new sister, Bella


• Hosting a Super Bowl party!

Yummy Eats:

• All of the Food Prep that's happening around here


• Tasty Taco Night


• Original Taco House in PDX


• So many good food photos here

Scary Self-Discovery

• When Opportunity Knocks and scares the heck out of me! 


• When your world turns Upside Down


• Sometimes to cope you have to allow yourself to smile

Thanks for sticking this month out with me - it really wasn't all that bad when I take a look back :)

<3 JE