When I was younger, I was one of the shyest and strangest people you would ever meet. Seriously, people would come over to my mom’s house and for years I would always hide in my bedroom because I was too afraid of them looking at me bad or rejecting me…yeah…I was that bad off.

Never mind talking to women, or hanging out with a lot of friends, I had no friends, because I just couldn’t risk the rejection. There was a lot of things socially wrong with the way I was back when I was a kid, many things I’ve fixed, some I still haven’t, but I’ve learned a really valuable lesson about accepting rejection along the way, and that iiiiis…

We can’t REALLY see ourselves fully, I know you’ve probably already came to that same idea somewhere in your life where what you think about yourself, or want to believe about yourself simply isn’t true. What we are is kind of obvious on the other hand to other people though whether we want to hide it or not, eventually or immediately the truth about ourselves shines through.

So in order to avoid the rejection we sometimes don’t even risk it, we don’t approach that woman or ask for a raise. Also we sometimes avoid even rejecting ourselves, in order to avoid the pain of that we treat a required change within ourselves as if it did not exist; because flaws with the way we are, at least to me, is the greatest pain we can face as individuals other than say getting your arm broken, burnt, or having an eyeball taken out.

Worded differently, knowing that we are wrong and that a massive change to ourselves is required to right it, is a very large amount pain and we often avoid it…creating fantasies and lies that comfort us instead but do not fix the problem.

Pain MUST be dealt with though, it is required for growth, face the pain and face the fear. Find the courage to do that which you know you must do…but are avoiding…then simply DO IT. Only through pain can we see our weaknesses and find ways to correct them. Pain is the only salvation. There is no easy way out and I know it sucks, but doing what you fear the most can become the greatest life-changing experience you may ever have, you must only walk through the door already opened for you.

The pain we find in dealing with the unknown, with change, with approaching strangers, or any worthwhile endeavor is tiny and only temporary compared to the life lived in boredom, mediocrity, and staleness. Be yourself, show others who you really are, be honest, and stop being so damn terrified that you “might be found out”. HOPE to be found out, because nobody’s perfect, embrace your flaws.

Actually pray that others might see flaws and tell you about them, so that you at least have the potential to gain greater freedom by learning from them. Rejection isn’t that bad of a thing because without it, we can’t grow.