Ask Jia 1: On Handling Rejection, Finding Passion, and Filming Yourself
I receive many questions from my readers. I will attempt to answer all of them... most of them... some of them here. Feel free to ask me more.
Question#1: How has your success affected your reaction to rejection? Have you experienced less rejection? - Anita
Just like anything in life, if you train for it, you get better. I forced myself to seek and handle rejections for over 100 days, and documented my progress and learning. Now I feel like a rejection ninja. My training provided me with a set of tools to use after hearing the word NO, and gave me a better chance to turn that NO into a YES. For example: here I was able to turn a rejection for a free night at a hotel into a nap in one of their rooms. To learn more about these tools, buy my book here. Both you and my publisher will be happy.
As I've become more successful, I haven't experienced less rejection at all. If anything, I've experienced a lot more because I make more impactful requests on a daily basis, and people reject me all the time. Some people think the more successful you've become, the more YESes you will get. It is true, but you will also get more NOs. The impact of your request grows with your success and ambition. Think about it, Donald Trump was rejected by a few folks here and there before he ran for President. Now that he has won, a lot more folks are rejecting and hating him. (No, this is not a political statement. It is a fact for all presidents and people with impact).
Question#2: How can I cure my oversleep and feel excited every day to chase my dreams!! - Tanu
Find your passion: I can relate to this question, because I overslept all the time and was even depressed when I wasn't passionate about my life and my job. Since then, I found my purpose through entrepreneurship and especially Rejection Therapy, life is now full of zest.
Make your goals public: when you make your private goals public by telling your family, friends and anyone who would listen, you create pressure for yourself and eliminate excuses for not going after your dreams.
Give yourself deadlines: Napoleon Hill once said "A goal is a dream with a deadline". By having public goals with hard, make-or-break deadlines, you become desperate, in a good way. This type of desperation brings out the most productive and creative part of you.
Do these and you will become much more excited about life. Oh, also go to bed early!
Question#3: How did you film yourself? - Spencer
Filming my experience was tough at the beginning. If I did it overtly, it would change people's reaction when they noticed they were being filmed. If I used a secret camera to hide the filming, I wouldn't feel good about it myself since I would have felt like a spy.
So I concocted a way to film my rejection sessions without either overtly showing or hiding. I hung my phone on a lanyard and wore it on my neck, and plugged in my earbuds. Then I pressed record. So most people simply thought I was just a strange guy with no fashion sense by carrying an iPhone in a dorky way. A few people got curious and asked me if I were filming, I always said YES and it was for my blog. No one cared.
I am not saying I am a genius, but...
