Rejection is a very hard feeling to face, no matter how old you are or how many or little times you have had to face it. It can come in all different forms, and sometimes we don’t even realize that we have been rejected until we get home and start to analyze what someone said to us a little more closely. Depending on your self esteem and confidence, rejection can be a hard pill to take, and can cause many people to suffer depression, anxiety, panic attacks and hurt. No one should have to go through the pain of rejection, but since it is not a perfect world, and it never will be, we can learn how to effectively deal with rejection when it comes our way.
The best way to deal with rejection is to be ready for it when it comes. Now, by that, I don’t mean that you should walk around expecting people to reject you left and right! I mean be proactive in your approach to negative responses. Whose opinion of you matters the most anyways? Not your parents’ opinion, your spouse’s opinion, or what your friends think of you matters the most; it is your opinion of yourself that matters the most! I will never forget a quote from the movie, “The Princess Diaries” – “No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.” This is a great quote because it is true, and we can apply it to our everyday lives.
If you are having trouble seeing yourself in a good light, grab a pen and a piece of paper and start listing all of the good qualities that you have. Write down whatever you can think of, and soon you will have to go and get another piece of paper. You can write down the physical attributes that you like about yourself as well, and don’t by shy – this is not a time to be modest. After all, you are the only person who will ever read this list, so you can go all out and write everything down!
After you feel satisfied that you have remembered everything you like about yourself, and all of your good qualities, (you may have remembered a few that you had forgotten you had or forgotten you liked) look it over and spend some time appreciating everything that you have to offer to people. Keep this list somewhere private, but somewhere that you will remember to take it out once in a while and remind yourself of everything that is good about you.
Constantly remind yourself that you are not placing your confidence in what other people think, but that you are confident in what you know to be true about you. Rejection will still come your way sometimes, but you can’t control other people’s actions; you can only control your reactions. Not everyone has the same opinions either, and for every one person who rejects you, there will be at least 50 people out there who would not.