Part 4 Rejection:
Good or Bad? What to do when nobody likes you Harlan Jacobsen Copyright ©
2003
Remember: he who
rejects you does you a favor.
He who pretends to accept or conditionally accepts you wastes your
time.
Rejection is your friend and ally. You go to a doctor: SYMPTOM CURE
REAL PROBLEM Headache
Super Aspirin Need
glasses Depressed
Tranquilizers Your
battery is dead,
(or
booze)
nothing to look forward to, anger turned inward. Rejection
hurts
Stay home Dire
need for approval
How did you get into this “rejection” problem of yours anyway?
Your parents said, “loving yourself is selfish.
You’re conceited, a braggart.”
Your church said putting you first was sinful.
Your parents also said to put others ahead of you, then you are a
good person. The Message was
we (adults) are important, you (as a kid) don’t count.
Others are significant, you are insigni-ficant.
Other people’s judgement is important, yours is not.
If you do that or are bad, people won’t like you.
Your internal conclusion - if people don’t like you, you must be
bad or defective.
YOUR VERY OKAYNESS HAS BEEN TIED UP IN OTHER’S APPROVAL.
Then you got divorced—I was liked by one person, now by nobody.
The one person that really knew me has rejected me.
I must be absolutely no good, absolutely nobody likes me.
Three hundred million people didn’t reject you when you got
divorced; only one did.
Bad news though; probably most of the other 300 million wouldn’t
like you either— AND
THAT’S OKAY TOO. IT HAS
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR OKAYNESS.
One of the biggest negative results of divorce is that most feel:
I was rejected; therefore I have low self-esteem.
When I have low self- esteem I just plain think I am no damn good.
When I am at that point,
1. I am scared to
death of rejection because it confirms “I am no damn good.”
2.
Prevents you from asking for anything at all.
3. Makes you feel
guilty and personally responsible for everything bad.
IT CAUSES YOU TO REJECT propositions, compliments, phone calls,
dates, dance, etc. etc. HOW-EVER,
IT CAUSES YOU TO ACCEPT A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL because a marriage proposal is
a significant stamp of approval of your “okayness.”
LOW SELF-ESTEEM DEFINITION: You
don’t like yourself. That
does not mean you are bad. It
only means you think you are, which is not the same thing.
Giving, or accepting, love from others is directly related to how
you see yourself. You do not
have to be wonderful to have high self- esteem.
You only have to think or know you are wonderful.
You are the world’s greatest expert on you.
(Also the greatest critic.) When
you think you are great, others believe and agree with you, because you
are the world’s leading expert on you.
If you think you are no good, others believe you.
You’re the world’s greatest expert on you.
WHEN YOU KNOW YOU ARE GOOD STUFF, YOU PUNCH YOUR OWN TICKET.
When you think you are a junk person, a throw away ready for the
scrap heap, then you go around looking for someone to punch your ticket to
be recycled. WHEN YOU REJECT
ME, YOU REFUSE TO PUNCH MY TICKET TO BE RECYCLED.
So you see you are insisting that someone else stamp you okay to be
recycled, when by your very insis-tence that they do that you are saying,
“I think I’m junk. Will
you stamp me okay for recycling? That
person says, “How can I stamp you okay?
I don’t even know you. You
know yourself and you give off a radar that says you are junk, so I have
to go along with that and stamp you “no good junk person” too.”
Now I am really sure I’m no good.
—I think I am no good. —You
get that message and accept it. —You
stamp me no good, and around and around it goes getting worse all the
time.
CHANGE YOUR OPINION ABOUT YOURSELF.
I really know me and I know I’m OK.
You have a problem —going around stamping people no good you
don’t even know. —I think
I am good. —You got a
prob-lem and stamp me no good. —Doesn’t
bother me; I know you don’t really know me, or you wouldn’t stamp me
no good or you have a problem.
OR:
Now I have more evidence I’m okay—.
Some others agree. —I
think I am good. —I take
your judgement since you’re the expert on you.
I’ll stamp you okay too. —I
don’t have to waste a lot of time trying to get you to like me and stamp
me okay.
DIFFERENCE: I DESIRE
AND WANT YOU TO LIKE ME, BUT IT IS NOT A NECESSITY, BECAUSE I ALREADY KNOW
I’M OK.
We all enjoy compliments, praise, applause, acceptance. That’s okay, that’s healthy.
It’s unhealthy when it is a necessity.
You adapt your behavior and do weird things to get it.
You collapse if you don’t get it.
What has happened is that other people’s view of you has become
more important than your own. This
is a psychological dead end. Your
behavior and what you do and how you do it are controlled outside
yourself. The more you need
and demand acceptance the more you can be manipulated.
You need approval so badly they can get you to sit up and say
bow-wow.
GIVE UP ON YOUR INSISTENCE THAT OTHERS SHOULD APPROVE AND ACCEPT
YOU. THEY SHOULD NOT. They can only accept, —really approve, —a few people.
They don’t have time to really get to know and accept everyone.
It’s like everybody has a stove with a limited number of burners.
Today all their burners are full.
Tomorrow someone may have moved off a burner, so now they have one
empty and they can accept you. You
may be on a back burner for a while and if a front burner becomes empty,
they may move you up. If your
time is right, you might land right on a front burner if they have one
open right now.
But if their burners are full today, then they have to reject you.
Tomorrow you will not give them another chance to “hurt” you
again. If you are hurt by
rejection, you miss out on a lot of good relationships because you won’t
try again, when they may have a burner empty.
Eighty per cent of big relationships, —according to Dr. George
Bach’s research, —had no initial attraction.
It grows later. For
some products or services, some salesman find their most productive call
or sales attempt is on the third call.
When I was in my twenties I was a sales manager so I see
similarities in being single. These salesmen find that initially on first impression there
is little interest on their prospect’s part in doing business with their
firm.
THE SALESMAN WHO HAS A 3 CALL
PRODUCT: 100 calls
first call
sells 5 100 calls
second call
sells 10 100 calls
third call
sells 20 100 calls
fourth call
sells 10 100 calls
fifth call
sells 5 100 calls
sixth call
sells 2
You are very likely a three call product.
You’ll note that even the 4th call is better than new prospects.
Remember: some flashy,
popular, buy-on-sight big sellers are in the trash can a week later.
If you are selling a three call product and you only get rejected
once, you are going to have to do an awful lot of prospecting.
You need to decide, how hard is it to find prospects?
Is your time better spent with people who have already rejected
(not accepted) you, making the third or fourth call, or is your time
better spent prospecting?
Just like the salesman who must be sold on his product, so you must
be sold on you. (Next issue: Assessing your self-esteem.)
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