Professionally and personally, we’ve all felt rejection before – rejection in all its glorious, magical misery. For some of us, rejection is handled with a long drive and a depressing string of 90s rock ballads. For others, rejection is handled with a rash of highly suggestive and slightly offensive memes on every social media outlet available within a finger tappin’ reach.
Whether you decide to go with memes or tunes, though, the sting of rejection doesn’t exactly say ‘farewell’ or ‘nice knowing you.’ It likes to sit there and fester. To be brought up hours, days, weeks, or even years later. To say, “You thought you forgot about that one time, didn’t you? You thought your confidence was restored.” And when this happens – because it will – it’s important to know how to respond internally.
This is especially true for your professional life. Outside of work, you have family members and friends to get you through the tough times. At work, not so much. So rather than let rejection have its way with you, to control you, or to bring you down to a level you don’t need to be on, here are a few helpful suggestions to get you right.
Remember it’s just one person.
A person is a person is a person. Yes, some of these persons have more authority than others. But at the end of the day, they’re no better, no different, and no less human than you are, and in the grand scheme of things, it matters none. There is someone out there who will accept your talent, your ideas, and your vision.
Remember what you’re good at.
Rejection hurts because someone is saying that what you’re doing or what you’ve done just isn’t good enough. But, fortunately for you, there’s more to you than that. When you come upon rejection, think about all those things that you’re really good at, and think about them hard. And if you can’t think of anything, don’t be afraid to go ask someone.
Remember it’s just an opinion.
Two plus two will always equal four, but how people perceive you and your capabilities will vary. It’s just a perception, an opinion, an individual thought… it’s not set in stone, and it doesn’t define who you are, what you’ll become, or what you can do with yourself.
Remember it could be worse.
This is probably one of the worst things to say to someone who has just been rejected, but it doesn’t make it any less true. If you can get into the habit of reminding yourself that, hey, things really could be worse, then you’ll find it much easier to remain positive. There’s always a new direction to go in, and there’s always more to be found, but if you stop where you are, you’ll never see any of that for yourself.
Remember you have an opportunity.
Someone just told you that you aren’t good enough. So take this as your opportunity to become good enough. You should always make it a point to ask someone why you’ve been rejected because their answer might surprise you. Use this as a learning experience and as a motivator to avoid the same rejection in the future.
