A simple yet profound question that's worth examining!
The title asks a very base question. We all believe we have a good idea as to what rejection is. It’s a simple concept. You disapprove of something or someone and so you “reject” that thing or person. It’s something that many, many people fear, and are well aware of.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word “reject” as follows:
1a: to refuse to accept, consider, submit to, take for some purpose, or use rejected the suggestion reject a manuscript
b: to refuse to hear, receive, or admit : REBUFF, REPEL parents who reject their children
c: to refuse as lover or spouse
2 obsolete: to cast off
3: THROW BACK, REPULSE
4: to spew out
5: to subject to immunological rejection
None of those terms conjures up positive images. In fact, to be on the receiving act of someone rejecting us, for any reason, is a huge fear for modern everyday people in today’s world. I would argue that it’s a greater fear than death in some cases.
So many of us blow the importance of rejection far out of proportion!
Many people are secure in their own mortality. In their minds, they know they will die one day. No one knows the day or the hour, but we shrug our shoulders, take care of our health, and do the best we can to put it off. In fact, they are far more secure in this fact than they are in the idea that someone will reject them. If they value the person or people they would like to please enough, the idea of being rejected by that person or people is enough inspire cold sweats.
You’d swear they were going to be sent to the firing squad if they “blew it” with that person or people they’d like to gain favor with. In reality, no one gets shot at. Worst case, they do get rejected, and then what? They may be no worse for wear in that case. Yes, an opportunity will be slammed shut in their face. No, it will not feel good. But it’s an event, an occurrence at a point in time. Life will go on. Other opportunities abound.
People who believe that rejection is a life or death, all or nothing scenario operate in a scarcity mindset. They don’t realize that opportunity is all around them.
Main heading
Someone of the opposite sex rejects you? Dating is a numbers game. Next!
Got turned down for a job position after a seemingly great interview? No problem, just keep pushing forward with applications. Next!
You made a great sales pitch and a high-profile potential customer rejects you? Okay, that sucks. The revenue that you’re being denied would be great to have, but you haven’t lost anything you never had to begin with. Pat yourself on the back for making the effort. Besides, there are more high-profile clients around. Next!
Rejection isn’t the worst thing in the world. Yet, if you’re a “nice” person, it will certainly seem that way. In fact, many “nice” behaviors arise from an effort to avoid this very thing.
It also serves to protect a lower form of self-worth. If you don’t feel good about yourself, you will see rejection as affirmation of what you believe. This can be overcome, and I will go over how that works below.
Too many of us see rejection as this unstoppable boogeyman that is dreaded. The fact is that we often blow it up to be this way in our minds because we place far too much value/importance on what rejection really means.
In the next couple of weeks I will go into this topic deeper and show you how you can handle rejection as it happens and how you can adjust the way you view what rejection means in order to get the most of it (yes, you can gain something from rejection…..sometimes) and no longer view it as something to dread.
In part 2 next week, I will share my personal struggle with rejection with you. I have faced a lot of it. And I use my story to give you some hard-won wisdom regarding the right outlook on it.
Part 3 will go over the how to harness the gifts that rejection can bestow on you…. if you know how to claim them.
Part 4 goes back to the 1000-foot view of rejection with how to best view it as an overall concept
Finally, part 5 will touch on the abundance mindset and how you can harness that to permanently adjust your view of rejection away from something to be feared.
Strap in, buckle up, and get ready to see rejection for what it truly is – something that can be embraced and propel you further in life!
Feel free to leave any thoughts on this topic by leaving a comment below.