Explore 2019: The Gift of Rejection

I want to share something about REJECTION. Or what I'm calling the gift of rejection (Jessica Lahey probably influenced me there!). I think this is important because: 1) the nature of social media's highlight reel can be exhausting and make people feel crappy about themselves, 2) my impression is that people view me as someone who just goes out and crushes things with ease and without impasse.

In the last 3 months, I have developed and sent proposals for two projects that I think are legit substantial. Like, seriously legit substantial. Both were rejected. Not rejected in a "revise and resubmit" manner. Rejected in a flat out "yeah, I don't think this is strong enough" manner.

Yesterday was the second of those rejections and while yes, of course, I had an initial, "seriously?" disappointed response, literally, in about 30 seconds, I was like, "OK, I think rejection can be a gift."

Pretty much all spring long I have been wrestling with overwhelm. I have a ton of projects going on. I wake up and routinely have 70-80 things on my to-do list. I have clients who have given me stress-related dandruff. I have complicated personal and professional relationships that I am navigating. And of course there is my family, who generally speaking, is super understanding of my drive and commitments, but also probably understandably is sometimes like, "WTF, just stop doing things."

Yesterday Violet asked me to teach her to play chess and I said yes. And as I sat there watching her delight in learning something new, it became even more clear to me how fast the time is going and how much I want to say yes to a lot of things with my family this summer. So while two rejections sting the ego of someone who takes pride in creating quality content, right now I am exhaling and embracing these rejections as a gift and a sign from the universe. Right now I am relieved to not add two new sets of to-do list items to my workflow. Right now I just want to appreciate the abundance I'm currently enjoying and let it be enough.