Unlock Progress By Seeking Rejection

Enabling Progress By Seeking Rejection

After sifting through an old notebook I came across some podcast notes from 2015, the bullet point read: “search for NO to unlock real progress”. Today’s blog will riff around that theme along with a technique we’ve used here at GymFuse to turn rejection into a game.

We can all agree hearing ‘no’ sucks. Depending on the scenario the pain of rejection can linger on for days, weeks or even months.

We often limit our potential for growth through our subconscious avoidance of hearing this dreaded ‘no’. We must ask how many ‘yeses’ we’re hiding in amongst the questions we failed to ask due to pre-empting the emptiness of hearing a no? If not a direct yes, by asking the question we start a dialogue. A process of back and forth that either brings us closer to a yes, or teaches what we need to work on to get one next time.

British people tend to be the worst culprits. Our polite, understated nature and seemingly in-built response to apologise when someone else makes a mistake can make it difficult to ‘ask’ for things. There is a solution, and it’s pretty fun too.

It’s All A Game

By turning the situation on its head we can gamify the process. Rather than aiming for a yes, we can make the number of NOs the goal. Actively celebrating amongst the team or circle of friends you play this with at the end of everyday, rewarding whoever received the largest number of NOs.

Of course, we are not deluded, we want to hear a yes but breaking down the fear of rejection paves the way to getting the results we desire.

Whether it is approaching that ideal influencer you’ve been putting off because of feeling too small right now, or the nutrition company you’ve been dying to partner with. Arrange the meetings and make the calls, because a no is far less likely than you think.