A Blessing in Disguise: How to Harness the Power of Rejection

Why rejection is a powerful tool for your growth and development

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Rejection is never fun.

Whether it be that rejection letter from an open position you’ve just applied to, or that pretty girl you’ve had your eye on for a while outwardly rejecting your advances, at some stage in life you have to take the brunt of rejection.

It’s not easy – rejection can easily knock your confidence and make you feel as though you have nothing to offer.

It hurts. Really bad.

I’ve been rejected from a lot of things. I remember the first time I ever asked a guy out.

Whew.

I was in my very early teens, and mind you I wasn’t the cutest either. My fashion sense was still… developing and I wore the most granny-like pair of spectacles you’ll ever see. My hair was always super scruffy too. As a chubby tomboy, I was always playing around outside in my garden if I wasn’t writing or reading.

I must’ve been 14 years old and crushing heavy on this guy I met through a friend. Picture this — it was during the time of Blackberry messenger, MySpace and MSN. We’d talk all the time and I was certain he was going to be my first beau. So I plucked up the courage and told him I liked him. He laughed awkwardly and said it wouldn’t work between us. A week later, he’d changed his profile picture to one which showed him and who was evidently his girlfriend.

Ouch.

I was inconsolable for weeks.

I’ve been rejected for jobs, programmes, and some really awesome positions. I remember when I first graduated, I was getting rejected left right and centre. I got rejected so many times I thought there was something wrong with me.

I thought companies would see my name and suddenly get chills or something. That one is bad vibes, I imagined they’d say.

Point of the matter is – rejection is a fundamental part of the human experience. You can either choose to ignore it, or you can choose to utilise it for your good. It wasn’t until I started transforming the way I thought about the functionality of rejection that I started to value it all the more.