Last month my coach; Therese Sparby, challenged me to make outrageous requests.    It reminded me of Jia Jiang and his rejection therapy.  You may remember him from the video a few months ago of a guy requesting Olympic Donuts.  (See the video below)

He wanted to overcome his fear of rejection.  “Luckily for me” I’m not afraid of rejection; the problem is rejection has become such a common thing that it surprises me more when someone says yes.

Then there are times when people deliver almost the exact opposite of what I ask. A few months ago, I asked for a quiet weekend to enjoy being in New Orleans, instead a friend picked a fight.   Asked a friend to order pizza without onions because they make me sick, and 30 minutes later I’m picking onions off the pizza.

Hiding

During the call we talked about how I spend many PE sessions hiding behind a meter during PE at my elementary school.  The meter hid me from the kids on the playground, and in some ways I’m still hiding so I can “be safe.”

Perhaps this is why some of my requests are not seen as important.

Already I’ve made several requests, which really are only outrageous in that they are coming from me, and they have resulted in several no’s.

One was an extremely simple request, “Come visit me here.”  The friend sent a text “I thought you were coming here.”  Unfortunately I explained why I wasn’t, and asked about seeing a Netflix movie.  She said, “I didn’t get a Netflix this week.”  More texts, and when I say forget it, she asks why I’m mad.

Until asking why I was mad, I was just disappointed.  She finally did visit, but now I realize that this is why Therese assigned this homework of me.

Outrageous Request Challenge

Outrageous Request ChallengeNow she just wanted me to do it for a couple of weeks.  Unfortunately or fortunately I sometimes get a crazy hair.  “If Jia can do 100 days, I can do a month!”  After the call I checked his website and realized there were a couple of “outrageous requests” I wanted in the next two months (ie a book autographed by Wil Wheaton)… so I can do 60 days and do a website!

But I was changing web hosts, and it took over 2 weeks for the whole process, so I couldn’t build the website, plus more than one friend pointed out…  uh… you live in a small town, and some other issues with everyday…

So compromise is 100 Outrageous Requests and blog post abut them. I attached that blog to this website.  I have decided to do a 1 every other day, so sometimes I may miss a post on this side, to have a post on the other side.  I’ll include a brief post and a link to that side when I miss.

My Request from You

Like I said, I’m not used to asking for things, so I am asking for help from you!  Basic guidelines, Ethical,Legal,  Possible.  Secondary guideline, I want to ask outrageous requests with the possibility of hearing yes, as such it also should be something that would be what I would want.

No, I’m not expecting you to read my mind, but the only example I can think of is: I don’t wear dresses, so an outrageous request to get a brand new dress that I wouldn’t wear… well that’s not a win for anyone…

Please help me make some outrageous requests, you can just comment here 🙂  and then please visit the new Outrageous Request Blog!

Rock on!

MJ Schrader