I like the idea but I think much of the challenge lies in experiencing rejection without spiraling into depression, anxiety, etc.
Some of this might work itself out just via exposure. That is, as long as you don’t ramp up your rate of rejection too quickly so as to kick in negative feedback due to depression/anxiety/whatever that prevents you from continuing to take actions that might result in rejection, you’ll end up engaging in a kind of comfort zone expansion and get more comfortable with being rejected as you gather evidence that getting rejected is not so bad. Great!
I don’t think this will work for everyone, though, because some people will have deep-seated memories or trauma that keep them from updating on the fact that rejection isn’t actually that bad. Instead, each rejection will sting as bad as the last and they’ll just run themselves through hell. Maybe they’ll get results, but at high cost to their mental health. For such a person they probably need to deal with that first, maybe by something like memory reconsolidation, maybe by some other method, before they can try to get rejected more often.
This is a great point. I think my takeaway isn’t to seek out rejection, especially if that’s at an expensive cost of your mental health. It’s to not let your fear of rejection stop you in cases where there is an asymmetric upside.
I like the idea but I think much of the challenge lies in experiencing rejection without spiraling into depression, anxiety, etc.
Some of this might work itself out just via exposure. That is, as long as you don’t ramp up your rate of rejection too quickly so as to kick in negative feedback due to depression/anxiety/whatever that prevents you from continuing to take actions that might result in rejection, you’ll end up engaging in a kind of comfort zone expansion and get more comfortable with being rejected as you gather evidence that getting rejected is not so bad. Great!
I don’t think this will work for everyone, though, because some people will have deep-seated memories or trauma that keep them from updating on the fact that rejection isn’t actually that bad. Instead, each rejection will sting as bad as the last and they’ll just run themselves through hell. Maybe they’ll get results, but at high cost to their mental health. For such a person they probably need to deal with that first, maybe by something like memory reconsolidation, maybe by some other method, before they can try to get rejected more often.
This is a great point. I think my takeaway isn’t to seek out rejection, especially if that’s at an expensive cost of your mental health. It’s to not let your fear of rejection stop you in cases where there is an asymmetric upside.