Let’s be honest, being rejected feels awful. And being told that we learn from failure does little to ease the pain.
Especially when we are offering is something we truly care about, rejections can cut deep.
And yet, if we are bringing anything new and worthwhile to the world, we are going to get rejected. A lot.
What to do?
Perhaps a reframing is in order.
The rejections—the responses to what we’ve offered—typically suck up all of our attention when the fact is, these results aren’t what matter.
What matters are the conversations we’ve had.
These are our rehearsals.
A chance to practice our pitch.
A chance to test which stories are memorable enough that they get repeated back to us.
A chance to file the rough edges and let go of the parts that we love(d) but that aren’t needed by our audience.
Until, one day, it really is showtime.
The conversation we’ve been waiting for.
The one that we’ve been lucky enough to be practicing for all this time.
And this time, we nail it, thanks not to all the previous rejections, but thanks to all the chances we’ve had to practice.
I don’t like rejections, but I love dress rehearsals.
How else could I ever be ready for the spotlight?
