Fear of rejection and fear of failure are two stumbling blocks that hold one back from experimentation or even linear progression. While the fear of failure is more to do with low self-confidence and self-perceived inability, the fear of rejection is a bigger worry about the outcomes - how people might ridicule one for even making an attempt at something.
While self-help books try and coach you to improve self-esteem as a possible remedy, there are better seemingly solutions. As with most things in life, doing something repeatedly makes it look less alien and 'difficult'. Extending this further, failing sorely time and again could make you numb to these negative feelings of failure & rejection. However, wouldn't it be wise to create smaller opportunities where you could fail with impunity, rather than exhausting costlier options from your career and life events?
I recently came across this excellent Ted Talk on this topic. What better person to learn this from, than one who has systematically set himself up for failure 100 times, and has eventually made a successful career out of it!
 |
| Video URL: https://www.ted.com/talks/jia_jiang_what_i_learned_from_100_days_of_rejection |
Jiang also writes about the 'Spotlight effect', which basically is a misconception that one is the centre of the universe and that everything we say and do is noticed in vivid detail by others around us. 'These fears force us to conform to others expectations, live mediocre lives and have forgettable careers.' In reality, no one has as much time, or to put it bluntly, no one really cares. Jiang also has a practical therapy of singing in the public to get over such fears!
Each person has their own set of fears, and some quirky ones at that. So, this is definitely worth taking a look at.
No comments:
Post a Comment