More than thick skin: processing rejection and criticism

Who doesn’t love to receive good news? Or how about the saying: No news is good news? What about when the dreaded rejection arrives for that dream job, much-anticipated date, financial loan or story proposal? For me, the latter hits home big time. From five-sentence summary pitches to 800+-word short story submissions, the no’s outweigh the yeses. So how do we “keep on keeping on” when encouragement waxes and wanes like the moon in its orbit? I’ve been pondering this question as I throw spaghetti against the wall to discover what sticks. And aside from celebrating small wins nestled in-between the losses, I think it’s about the bigger picture. I’ve heard that a thick skin is required to handle rejection and crit (noun: criticism—a word I recently learned playing Boggle with my daughter and husband). But, even more important, I believe we must identify what we want, and then accept that it requires navigating the messy middle before achieving our happy ending.

How do you handle rejection?

Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash.