One of the things that all humans must do with in life is handling rejection with grace. All of us know that rejection is something that everyone has to cope with some time throughout our lives. There will always be people who just do not want to date you, there will always promotions that you will not get, or maybe because you are royal sleazebag who writes ugly articles about a President that you did not vote for and you are upset because you lost. At some point, you need to move on like an adult.
Let us look at how experts recommend handling rejection better.
Keep Learning From Rejection
Inc. recommends that instead of dealing directly with our pain from rejection, “mentally strong people ask themselves, ‘What did I gain from this?’ so they can learn from rejection” and convert that experience into something positive which leads to self-growth. When you begin looking at issues this way, then each time you are rejected presents yet one more learning opportunity.
“Whether you learn about areas in your life that need improvement, or you simply recognize that being turned down isn’t awful as you imagined, rejection can be a good teacher. Use rejection as an opportunity to move forward with more wisdom,” Inc. recommends.
Be Sure and Keep Your Odds in Mind
You should know in advance what your odds are to succeed in any given situation. Granted you really cannot crunch real numbers as to whether or not a lady will accept a dinner invite from you, but if she has shown an interest or seems to like you, then your odds are pretty good that she will accept your invitation.
Psychology Today states “Keeping the odds in mind makes all the rejections along the way more tolerable.” It simply maintains that even when you know your odds of success are low, this is not a sufficient reason for not trying at all. You have to remember that just 2% of all job applications ever lead to getting a job, so you will never know if you are actually within that 2%.
Part of this is always knowing who your audience is and how they feel about you. If you are trying to make a connection with someone else or even a group that you have had a poor interaction with sometime in the past. You should probably try out a few smaller interactions prior to taking a big plunge on huge asks that could get you rejected.
Think About the Reasons Why You Were Rejected
We should always view rejection as a great time to exercise some good old self-reflection.
The very last thing we would ever want to do would be to thank that person and request even more criticism. However, if you really want to grow as a person, then seeking and asking for critiques from them and others would provide you with a wealth of valuable information.
Whenever you seek feedback from the very person that was responsible for rejection, then the answer you get from them will probably sting, but it is a great opportunity to learn from you missteps. Then with better preparation, you are more likely to succeed in the future.
This is the process is handling rejection with grace.
