The feeling of rejection can sink in deep and attach itself to your self-worth. But in in reality, it does not belong anywhere near your identity. It stings, but rejection is about one occurrence or instance, not you as a person.
So how can you overcome rejection? Start by taking time to step away from the situation, even for a few minutes. Find ways to build your self esteem such as watching this Ted Talk about coping with rejection:
Another coping strategy for rejection is simple act of just venting to a third party without asking for any advice. Try blahtherapy.com. It’s a good place to vent to someone and let out all your frustrations about the situation or the event that sparked the feeling of rejection.
The book Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection by Jia Jiang describes many different ways to overcome the feeling of rejection and keep moving forward in reaching your goal and continuing on to the next task with higher confidence and a positive inner voice.
Here are Jang’s key takeaways for coping with rejection:
IN THE PROCESS OF MY REJECTION JOURNEY, HERE IS WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT REJECTION:
- Rejection is a muscle. If you don’t constantly work outside your comfort zone, you’ll lose it and you’ll become weak and timid.
- Rejection is a numbers game. Fight through enough no’s and you will eventually find a yes.
- Avoiding rejection is worse than receiving it.Most people believe avoiding rejection is a good thing, by avoiding something bad we’ve dodged a bullet and we are somehow net positive, but that’s not true. When we shy away from rejection we reject ourselves and our ideas before the world ever has a chance to reject them. This is the worst form of rejection and as a result, we are ignored by the world.
Tips for managing other difficult feelings
Our campaign home page has tips for other common negative emotions or feelings.