I can be a little bit of a scaredy-cat sometimes. Spiders freak me out, I get nervous when crossing train tracks, and I'm a double-check-I've-locked-the-door-at-night type of girl. That being said, one of my biggest fears used to be rejection. I was terrified of the idea of not being good enough for something or someone. This all too common fear in our society often leads to missed opportunities.
Recently, JK Rowling tweeted about the times her books had been turned down by book publishers. As proof, she posted photos of actual rejection letters she received for her "Cormonan Strike" book series that she pinned under the name of Robert Galbraith. She added that she kept all of her "Harry Potter" rejection letters in a box in her attic.
Imagine what would have happened if JK Rowling had thrown in the towel after receiving rejection letters for her books. We would have never been introduced to the wizarding world of Harry Potter. JK Rowling's honesty about being rejected not only illustrates how inevitable rejection is, but how motivating it can be. "I wasn't going to give up until every single publisher turned me down," she tweeted.
I think we often forget that getting turned down, whether it's for a job, a relationship, a friend, or some other opportunity, doesn't mean something else, something better, isn't going to come around later. If we get hung up on all the times we get rejected, we might miss all the chances we have to learn and move on.
From now on we need to see rejection as sort of a blessing in disguise. It's like someone is telling you "hey, I'm not right for you/this job isn't right for you/things aren't right here" and you now have the opportunity to move along to the next thing.
Being rejected is not a reflection of your value. If an employer or peer doesn't see it, that's their lost. The book publishers that turned down "Harry Potter" years ago probably regret it every single day. We need to stop taking rejection so personally. Instead, we should accept it as just an obstacle and still continue to work for what we want.
Let's use our Griffindor bravery to stop fearing rejection and start taking chances.
