I'm nervous about this one.
So far I've done this a few times. Once in a yoga studio after a class ended. That was the first time. We only did it for 30 seconds. The next time was a year later, in my office. That experience occurred with other people around, which lead to me sending an email out fo the office mailing list inviting people to participate. I ended up making eye contact with two other people in that same office.
Then I decided to try this as a 30-day life experiment.
What will it be like to get this vulnerable every day? Will I become more comfortable with it? If so, what will I do next to push myself into new vulnerable territory?
How often will I get rejected? Who will reject me? Who will I approach? So far, everyone with whom I've done this, who I have approached, have been women. What will be it like to approach guys?
How will I present this experience to people? Do I acknowledge the unusual nature of this invitation?
I'd like to take a portrait of each person who participates and post it, along with their first name, on this blog, when I do entries describing my experiences. What will they say to that? I think I won't lead in with it.
I'm about to head out of the office to find my first participant. I have so many questions. I just don't know how this is going to go. I'm nervous about possibly being rejected, about what people will think of me, of being vulnerable.
And that's exactly why I am doing this. Because I am scared, because I feel alive and invigorated when I'm vulnerable, because it seems like a really valuable, interesting space to explore, yet unfortunately quite unusual.
Here we go.