The fear of rejection is a very common and deep fear that all humans experience.
Any change in our environment that requires us to step out of our comfort zone puts us at risk of being cut off or demeaned.
We are hard-wired to belong to a community. Years and years ago, being rejected from a group could have meant death. So it’s no wonder we fear being isolated or humiliated. It’s part of our nature.
We first learn this when our parents make their love conditional upon our behavior. If we do what pleases them, they give us love and approval. If we do something they don’t like, they withdraw their love and approval — which we interpret as rejection.
Then when we grow up, we become preoccupied with the opinions of others. We feel we have to do things a certain way to please those around us.
By living with this fear, instead of dealing with it, it manifests into a self-fulfilling prophecy. It will cause you to avoid risk of any kind and reject opportunity when it is presented to you. If you don’t take the risk to put yourself out there, then you’re not making progress on finding love, making friends, getting your dream job, becoming wealthy, or reaching your goals.
In this episode I share some action steps to overcome fear of rejection.
In fact, more than 99% of adults react to fear with an “I can’t” attitude because…
Fear paralyzes action.
Physically, fear can shut down your brain and turn you into a deer caught in the headlights. Mentally, it will shut down any thoughts of self-belief and make you think you’re unworthy.
And nothing happens without action.
Fear of rejection will hold you back in many areas throughout your life and undermine the happiness you deserve.
Here are some techniques to become more confident and accept rejection if it does happen:
- Visualize yourself as fearless– Your self-image, the way you see and think about yourself, is eventually altered by feeding your mind positive mental pictures of yourself.
- Use The Law of Reversibility– If you act in a manner consistent with the feelings of courage, even if you don’t feel it, it will soon become a reality.
- Move toward the fear– Confront, deal with and act in spite of your fears to put the fear behind you. As your fear grows smaller, your confidence grows bigger.
