I watched the first 3 minutes of maybe 7 videos today to find one that I really wanted to watch and accidentally came upon this one. And, you know, I love it! You need to watch it. This is a TED talk called What I learned from 100 days of rejection by Jia Jiang that you (and your students) should take 15 minutes to watch.
I won't do a lengthy review because I don't want to take away the impact of his stories. But, Jia Jiang was an entrepreneur who decided that he was not facing fears and things needed to change. So, he began a journey, termed his 100 Days of Rejection Therapy. He would ask someone to do something for 100 days straight, expecting to be rejected. He blogged and did videos of the experience, which you can check out here! Tasks ranged from asking a random person to borrow money, racing someone on foot (on a track), hugging a Walmart greeter, planting a flower in someone's yard, and asking a waitress to dance with him.
After I watched (and looked him up on Twitter), I discovered he actually wrote a book about his experience--Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection. In his words, he did this because he wanted "to desensitize myself from the pain of rejection and overcome my fear. Three criteria I set for myself: 1. Ethical (no lying or marriage-undermining) 2. Legal 3. Doesn’t defy the law of physics."
His main point is that a whole other world of opportunity exists if you can get over rejection. It's strange how many things we miss in life simply because of fear of rejection or failure. He encourages us to turn rejection into opportunities and not to run away when things get tough. Great message (and now I'd love to read his book!).
PERSONAL NOTE: Okay, you might say that this experiment didn't have real meaning. It wasn't high stakes, no job was on the line, nothing was super scary... perhaps. However, as a school teacher, my students worry about rejection and failure daily. They worry about letting people down, not knowing the answer, not understanding how to do things, and many times they just give up. They run away from conflict. They refuse to ask questions. They answer me with IDK instead of trying because giving up is easier than being wrong. I believe this type of experiment, maybe on a smaller scale, might help students to realize that you can't take life so seriously. You can ask people for things and maybe you will hit a wall, but maybe you won't. Maybe you will have success. But, more importantly, you will begin to understand that it's okay to take small risks, whether that be answering a question the best they know (even if it's wrong) or trying something that they might not immediately be good at. Failure and rejection lead to growth if you move on and do not let it set you back. Good stuff, Jia!
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