embracing 'nos' - Svitlana's Thinking Thoughts 🌻

"Could you write us a poem about the importance of petting your eyebrows?" we asked two men resting by the waterfront in downtown San Francisco. "Make it beautiful, and at least five lines long," we added with a firm tone. I am afraid of many things and social rejection often vibrates the strongest. In the spirit of tackling fears, my friend and I decided to poke this fear of rejection. In his TED talk, Jia Jiang introduced ‘rejection therapy game,’ where one goes out and seeks daily rejections with the goal of desensitizing oneself from the pain. Jia’s requests spanned a delightful range, from asking Krispy Kreme for donuts shaped like Olympic rings to planting a flower on one’s backyard. Inspired by Jiang's lessons, we set out on our own rejection hunt. Our goal? To intentionally increase our inbound 'no' rate and build comfort hearing and saying 'no's. At first, the idea of approaching two business busy men engaged in a conversation felt daunting. The 'worry army' steadily marched i

"Could you write us a poem about the importance of petting your eyebrows?" we asked two men resting by the waterfront in downtown San Francisco. "Make it beautiful, and at least five lines long," we added with a firm tone. I am afraid of many things and social rejection often vibrates the strongest. In the spirit of tackling fears, my friend and I decided to poke this fear of rejection. In his TED talk, Jia Jiang introduced ‘rejection therapy game,’ where one goes out and seeks daily rejections with the goal of desensitizing oneself from the pain. Jia’s requests spanned a delightful range, fro