Rejection. We have been taught to hate it. That it’s no good and doesn’t help us at all. Then again, maybe it does…
Rejection is when you get turned down. You’ll hear things like:
“No.”
“Not today.”
“Let me think about it.”
“Ha, ha, ha!”
“Red.”
Whether it makes sense or not, it’s not what you want to hear. We want everything to go our way, just the way we plan it. In reality, it almost never goes the way it’s planned. That would be too easy and like they say, “If it were easy, everyone would do it.”
Let’s start by drinking some water. Now, when you think about it, does rejection really hurt? It doesn’t hurt physically, but for most people, it hurts the ego. Being rejected time after time is no fun. There has to be a way to punch rejection in the face and make it run away, screaming and crying. If you’re tired of it, that’s good – that means you’ve been sticking to your plan. If you hide from it, that means we have some work to do.
We already established that rejection is not fun. It slows you down and robs you of your intended progress. Or does it? It can not rob you of your intended progress, not unless you let it. When people say ‘no’, they aren’t saying, “No, you horrible, terrible, no-good, geek!” They’re really pushing you towards your goal. When things don’t go as planned, that’s not a sign to stop and give up. It’s a sign to get on with it.
Think of rejection as an adventurous lesson. When you plan your work and start to work your plan, you’re beginning a journey. When you’re on a journey, you know where you want to end up, but DURING the journey, anything goes. It’s like climbing a mountain. On your way up, you’ll get tired, thirsty, bitten by mosquitos, scratched up by thorns and angry weeds, etc. But at some point, you make it to the top. You didn’t turn around to go back down and you might have even stopped for a minute, but you kept going to the top. You knew you had to get there, because that was the plan and the designated goal.
It’s the same thing with working your plan. People are going to reject you and at times, you’ll want to go the other way or throw up your hands. It’s a funky type of adventure – just keep going to see what happens next. You may even come across people, who may actually offend you. Take care of it and keep going.
Let rejection be your energy. It should make you want to go the extra mile, just to prove it can be done. At the end, you’ll have the most awesome-est story to tell! You could be one of those people you admire, who went through so much, just to get through to the other side. That’s what rejection does – it builds you. Instead of feeling bad, you should feel glad because it actually helps you along. It’s always going to be there, so get comfortable with it. Be rejection’s friend and see how far it’ll take you.