Rejection Therapy started as a simple game by Jason Comely with one rule: get rejected by a real person, every day. Jia Jiang made it famous by filming 100 days of deliberate rejections — asking strangers for absurd favors until the fear of "no" stopped running his life. The idea is free, it's public, and it works on a simple principle: the fear of rejection shrinks when you collect evidence that a no doesn't hurt.
The classic American list doesn't map cleanly onto Indian life — and some of it leans on hassling people who are paid to be polite, which we don't do. So here's the adapted version.
What are the rules?
One small ask a day, where "no" is a likely and completely acceptable answer. You're not trying to get a yes — you're practicing surviving the no. Three hard rules: keep the ask small and respectful; one no is the whole answer, never push; and don't burden people who can't walk away — a shopkeeper mid-transaction is fair game for a discount ask, a waiter mid-shift is not the target of a social experiment.
30 asks, easiest first
Warm-up (days 1–10): ask the sabziwala for five rupees off. Ask the chai tapri for extra adrak. Ask a neighbor in the lift which floor has the better water pressure. Ask the gym front desk if you can see the trainer's schedule. Ask the auto driver if he'll take a shortcut you name. Ask a coworker to swap seats for the afternoon. Ask the canteen for a smaller portion at a smaller price. Ask the security guard how long his shift is. Ask a batchmate to review one slide. Ask the barber for a style he hasn't done on you.
Middle sets (days 11–20): ask someone at the gym to alternate sets. Ask a stranger at the bus stop which route is faster and why. Ask the society WhatsApp group if anyone plays badminton mornings. Ask a colleague you barely know to lunch. Ask the coworking pantry crowd if anyone wants the last samosa split. Ask your manager one question in all-hands. Ask the bookshop uncle for a recommendation and then a discount on it. Ask a runner at the park what shoes those are. Ask the flatmate group for a movie night. Ask a vendor if he'll hold an item till evening — no advance.
Heavy sets (days 21–30): ask a speaker at a meetup one question in front of the room. Ask a senior colleague for fifteen minutes of career advice. Ask the landlord for a repair he's been dodging. Ask someone whose work you admire, on LinkedIn, for one specific piece of feedback. Ask the wedding crowd's most intimidating aunty how she knows the couple. Ask a stranger at a fest to take your photo, then offer to take theirs. Ask for a plus-one. Ask a friend-of-friend to join your plan directly. Ask the group to change the restaurant. Ask someone to teach you the thing they're good at.
Why does collecting rejections work?
Because avoidance is a prediction — "if I ask, something bad happens" — and the only way to correct a prediction is data. Every polite no you survive is a data point that the worst case is mild. That's the same principle graded-exposure research is built on, and it's why we designed Cues to pay XP for rejections: an honest "they said no" is a completed rep, not a failure.
Practice, not therapy: if the fear is at a level where it's running your daily life, a licensed professional is the right first step. This list is training for the ordinary fear the rest of us carry.
How do you keep score?
Log every ask and every outcome, honestly — including the days you bailed. The bailed days aren't shameful, they're the baseline you're beating. Thirty asks from the list above, logged, is a better confidence course than any amount of content you could watch.