When you put yourself in a position to be rejected, you are taking an emotional risk.
We are biologically wired to avoid the risk of rejection.
In the past, getting rejected was a physical risk. No one wanted to get thrown out of the group, left to survive on their own. That would not have worked out so well. You could get eaten by a LION for example.
Today, although things have radically changed, the brain has not fully caught up. Its job is to protect you.
As a result, the emotions that arise from rejection are a representation of the physical risks rejection poses.
Those emotions manifest as fears – fear of loss, failure, and feelings of being unsure or unsafe about the future.
You get one bad rejection and your brain will have you living under the freeway overpass – not in six months – but tomorrow!
Start ignoring your brain's distaste for rejection. In fact, there are unusual (and often overlooked) benefits to facing it. We say unusual and overlooked because most of us haven’t been taught to seek out what’s good about rejection.
Here are three benefits and they are powerful:
- The more times you successfully survive a rejection, the more you will “numb” yourself to the (built in) emotional sting.
- The more you face “no” rather than run from it, the more your courage and confidence will grow, making you so much better.
- By dealing with nos, your skills handling it will improve, eventually making you effective at keeping it from happening as often.
Do something a little scary. Face rejection head on. Might hear a no? It’s okay. You will survive.
Remember, a No is Not a Lion.
