Rejection

Rejection is not the problem; the sadness caused by rejection is. Fortunately, there is a causal link between emotional sadness and practical solutions.

If you feel sad all day because you've been rejected, the energy of courage will start to vanish, and the energy of a bright and willing committment to your goal will grow dim.

But if, while feeling sad, you resubmit your work to a new target, then your sadness will stay for less time. This is because there exists a cognitive link between rejection, sadness and your levels of courage and committment. But the exciting reality of this link is that rejection can actually foster courage and committment over long periods of time. Here's my understanding of the process:

If, when sadness arises after rejection, you can resubmit to one new target, the negativity will dissipate faster. But a little experimentation reveals that if you resubmit to THREE new targets, the negativity will vanish even faster!

But it gets bigger: if, whenever sadness arises, you grow your writing business, you will be less likely to suffer sadness over the long term, and you will be training yourself to see opportunity connected with sadness, enabling you to rise above negative emotions increasingly in your everyday life.

You could:

build a website
tidy your office
go to the art gallery
watch music clips and come up with ideas
write a weblog
put fresh flowers on your writing space.

The overall growth process here can be tracked by seeing how rejection appears over time.

FIRST rejection is an insurmountable obstacle.
SECOND rejection is an unsolveable problem.
THIRD rejection is a challenge which can be overcome with the right support.
FOURTH rejection is an opportunity to be taken and a test of courage.
SIXTH rejection is an opportunity to grow and learn.
and finally,
SEVENTH rejection has no intrinsic meaning in and of itself.

(This piece is completely rewritten from a writing magazine!)