Blog Post 14: Can I Have 10 Percent off Please?
Hello Everyone, Tonight's topic I find a bit amusing. I took this idea from the one and only, Tim Ferriss whom I have spoken about in previous posts and I have a few of his books in my Shop Tab. If anyone has seen his podcasts or his brief stint on television you will see how many social experiments this man does in order to destigmatize himself from social norms within our society. A few examples of the hilarious but brave things that he does are; wears the same outfit for 7 days straight, and visits the same coffee shop or frequents the same places within that week, and he isn't wearing a nice pair of slacks and a button up, he is wearing a raggedy old pair of jeans that he hasn't washed and a plain t shirt with sandals. Pretty much bumming it for a week. This experiement that he did and documented was to get over the fear and shame of what other people thought about him. He was becoming accustom to the looks, the stares, people moving away, and so on. Now, this doesn't feel like this would make anyone feel good about themselves or boost their self esteem. Surprise! It isn't supposed to, it is supposed to get your brain to stop reacting to other peoples reactions in a bad or harmful way. We all know that after you do something so many times it becomes a habit, your brain can do the same thing if you train it to think a certain way when faced with opposition.
The experiment that I adopted from Tim Ferriss a few months ago was the asking for ten percent off just for no reason experiment. He would be in any store, or be going through any drive thru and when it would come time to pay he would look at the cashier and ask for a ten percent discount. Most of the time he wasn't granted that ten percent discount, but sometimes the cashier would actually give him the discount. The point of this experiment isn't to get ten percent off it is to get used to rejection. Rejection to your face while making eye contact with someone can be an emotional blow to someone who doesn't go around asking lots of questions and who is more on the reserved side. This is an awesome social experiment to to do on yourself for yourself! For those of you in the Military if you know they don't offer military discount ask anyway, places like Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Safeway, etc..I have been doing this every so often at random stores and some actually give me a discount of some kind and they don't even know why, haha. This is also how I figured out that Starbucks gives out "Puppaccinos" for dogs. For the most part the cashier or store worker will look at me for a brief moment (thinking) and then say that they cannot offer me a discount, which is fine and dandy. That is the whole point of the experiment is to get over some form of rejection and to also become destigmatized by people's facial expressions when they think you have asked an absurd question.
The bottom line of this experiment is to get used to people saying no to you, rejecting you, giving you weird looks, and ultimately making you feel different or inferior. Get used to it if you ever want to grow and become someone great, because you are going to hear a lot more no than yes, and you are going to get your feelings hurt by people who are gatekeepers or maybe jealous in some way. Most people play by the rules, so they assume everyone else should too. Let them be who they need to be, while you have prepped the battlefield and knew this fight was coming. You rehearsed with real life situations so you will be armored against rejection, and the best part is you will have enough emotional energy in the tank to keep on going until you accomplish your goal or mission. That, my friends, is a BEAUTIFUL thing! Just like in the Military the more we rehearse now, the less we bleed on the battlefield (yes, I know more Military analogies). Now this doesn't mean you aren't going to feel any negative emotions. You are a human being and that is one of the beautiful things that sets us apart from the other animals on this earth. This just means you won't have to struggle as much because you were a little bit more prepared.
Be Beautiful. Be Brave.
XOXO,