I want to offer you a little experiment for when you’re sitting in rejection.
The “well, that didn’t go how I hoped” feeling. Or worse, the silence that feels like a no but you’re not quite sure.
Before you spiral and turn this into a story about your worth or capabilities, ask:
“What if this is pointing me somewhere else?”
Not in a mystical, everything-happens-for-a-reason way. Just… what if it is?
What if rejection really is redirection?
I mean… is there even an argument that it isn’t? Rejection does tend to send us somewhere new, whether we planned it or not.
Most people don’t get stuck because something didn’t work out.
They get stuck because they decide it means something else—
“It means something is wrong with me.”
“I can’t do it.”
“I should give up.”
“I knew it.”
“I am, unfortunately, uniquely unchosen.”
That’s a rejection wound.
And if rejection consistently knocks you off your centre like that, it’s not just a moment, it’s a wound re-opening
So instead of letting this wound take over, try this:
Just three questions. Nothing fancy. No perfect answers needed:
1. What’s actually happening here, without the story I’m adding to it?
(Just facts. Not meaning.)
2. What else could be true that has nothing to do with my value?
(Maybe timing. Maybe fit. Maybe randomness. Maybe someone else having a day. People are complicated like that.)
3. What’s a helpful next move I can make from here?
(Not the “right” move. Just a move that keeps me in motion – apply to one more thing, send the follow-up, take a shower, do the brave thing you’ve been avoiding, etc.)
That’s it.
Just three questions to keep things from spiralling into a story about you.
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