Sunday, September 21, 2008

Dealing with Rejection...

One of the first and most important things to understand in life is that no matter what you do, not everybody is going to respond positively to you. Not everyone you smile at will smile back at you. Not everyone you say hello to is going to say hello back to you.

We should stop expecting a positive response 100% of the time. Just because somebody did not smile back at you does not mean that you're not an attractive person or that you made a mistake by smiling. The only thing it means is that it did not work with that one person.

We should understand that life Is All About Rejection. Everything in life has rejection involved in it. If you're a salesperson who makes 10 sales calls, you may only get one or two people to say yes. You don't have to quit simply because you experienced some rejection. Imagine if you stopped looking for work when your very first interview didn't result in a job offer. That would, of course, be ridiculous. You just have to keep increasing your odds of success in life.

When you feel like you are getting more than your fair share of rejections, instead of focusing on those rejections, focus on increasing your odds of success. The fact is that by playing the percentages you will be successful. The reason is that every time you take action -- every time you smile, say hello, or walk over and initiate a conversation -- you get better at it. Increase your odds every single day and in everything you're doing.

Remember that you will not be on the front page of the news! When you're rejected, you need to just get over it. No one is talking about you. People are concerned about themselves and what is going on in their own lives, just as you are focused on what's going on in yours. So the fact that you get rejected in front of other people at the market, at the gym, or anywhere else is not a big deal to anyone but you.

If I smile at someone and they don't respond, you should think that you are not playing hide-and-go-seek the next time you see him/her. You should be equally friendly to them the next time I see him/her, because you never know what will happen that second time. It's a different day.

These are some ways to help get over rejection. Realize that in order to get good at interacting, you are going to get rejected. In fact, you would want to get rejected every single day, because if you're not, it means you're not trying.Once you get rejected, you should start thinking as to how you can go out the next day and make it better than what it was before. Learn to not only handle but to embrace rejection, and you will meet great new people and have an amazing social life.

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