Because our culture equates rejection to failure, many of us are scared of how rejection feels. Our experience is not only one of the rejection itself, but also the grief and personal devaluation it can seem to create for us. While rejection takes many different forms (from a parent, partner or child who turns their back on us, to friends, social media, dismissal of our ideas, or business funding and client rejections) ultimately the discomfort is quite similar.
While the level of intensity can vary wildly, underneath it, we feel we have been personally judged and found to be somehow lacking. We might feel dejected, or we might boost our self-image by becoming angry at whoever has rejected us.
Unfortunately, if we find ourselves rejected too often, many of us will stop putting ourselves out there. We stop selling, marketing, vying for promotions, or speaking up in key conversations. This, however, does not have to be the case. Rejection, like other uncomfortable experiences, can be leveraged to your advantage. All it takes is a mindset shift.
According to LifeHack, "Rejection is an unfortunate but necessary part of the human experience. Everyone experiences rejection at some point in their life, whether they realize it or not. What many people who experience this don't even realize are the benefits of rejection. While this may sound self-contradictory, ask anyone who's ever been turned down for a job or had someone they cared about to say they weren't interested in the person that way. Most of the time, rejection can be a very positive thing if you look at it the right way."
BELOW ARE FEW HIDDEN BENEFITS OF REJECTION:
You Get Insight Into Dealing With Challenges
Rejection can teach you something about yourself that you wouldn't have learned any other way; it can also help you better deal with disappointment. It is fairly certain all of us will face significant setbacks at some point. When we can recognize our inner values, purpose and goals, rejection helps us course-correct and pull on our inner strength and vision. We can explore if there is something we can improve about our approach, and do it with grit and resiliency, rather than letting someone else determine our success instead.
Rejection Serves As A Reminder That We Are All Human
Being human means we are here to learn and grow. Rejection is a blessing with its abundant opportunity for refinement, improvement and transformation. When we embrace its often quite tough lessons, we accelerate our personal growth. By contrast, if we already had all the answers, there’s very little living left to do.
Rejection Helps You Gain A Better Perspective
Rejection can be both painful and frustrating. It's never pleasant to have your aspirations fall apart, or to feel your goals are unimportant to the very people who could help you reach them. It’s okay to recognize those feelings, and at the same time, there is very little help to be gained from wallowing around in self-pity.
Once the dismay wears off a little, it’s time to explore whether what you wanted actually could benefit from either refining or overhauling, or if the conditions were not right, the timing was off, or if there is actually something better you might be able to achieve. This perspective reset takes the focus off your personal self-worth (which was never the issue!), and puts it back on the idea, situation, and on a new solution.
Rejection Provides A Chance For Personal Development
Nobody’s perfect. That goes for you, and whatever you were hoping for, that just got rejected. Similarly, it goes for the people who do the rejecting! There are countless stories of famous authors and inventors whose now legendary works were rejected repeatedly. From the electric light bulb, to the telephone, television, airplanes, automobiles, spacecraft and even personal computers, and from Stephen King to Ernest Hemingway to Dr. Suess and Agatha Christie – much of what we now see as our most influential inventions and literature had to face enormous rejection.
Just because you got rejected, don’t give your power and your passion away to the one who does the rejecting. Sure, give careful thought to what could be improved, but stay the course that you believe in. It strengthens your authenticity and your integrity.
Look, no one loves rejection. Still, the best, most empowering way through it is to befriend it for all the lessons it contains.
If you'd like some support embracing the hidden benefits of rejection, be sure to apply for your complimentary strategy session and we can start making some progress!