I was on a family zoom visit last night, orchestrated by my dad, when he gave each of us siblings a few minutes to share particulars in our lives. One of my brothers told us that he was offered an online teaching position at a university, and, just like all the other things my siblings shared, we joyed with him. When it was my turn the first thing I said was that I had, just this week, received a rejection from that same university. Of course, we all laughed.
“I just added it to my rejection sheet,” I said. Then my sister spoke up and asked if I really keep a record of my rejections. I do! Here’s why:
To be fair, that’s not the only reason, but it’s one of the top ones. Rejection is the road to acceptance and offers.
I write. I love writing. I’ve self published a few books, and I’ve had a handful of creative articles legitimately published. I’ve written some really boring stuff (by request) too, and had that published, but it’s not what I love. Anyway, someday it would be so cool to land a literary agent and have a novel published by a publishing house. What I know is that no one gets to that point without rejections. Lots of them. So I query, query, query and keep a spreadsheet, noting each rejection. The best rejection I’ve gotten so far was from an agent who looked at my query and first few chapters long enough to give me some solid feedback. I love that rejection. Maybe I’ll never get my own agent. Maybe I’ll self-publish everything. But then again, maybe not. Maybe, if I can speed up my failures/rejections, I’ll get an offer. *fingers crossed*
It’s not just writing. Earlier in my life I worked with a colleague to create a winning TV show. We recorded an abbreviated pilot, and we even got to pitch it. A few times. The closer we got to having it greenlit, the more times it was rejected. And recently I’ve submitted a whole lot of applications to teach as adjunct faculty. I’ve gotten a whole lot of rejections. Eventually, maybe one will be accepted. I hope so.
There’s another reason to keep track of my rejections. “The Lord loves effort,” President Russell M. Nelson said. (Prophet and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.) Life can be pretty frustrating when we focus only on results. I’m all for goal setting and for reaching toward results! But I’ve come to firmly believe that “… The battle is not yours, but God’s … Stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord with you … for the Lord will be with you.” (2 Chronicles 20: 15, 17) That “stand ye still” stuff doesn’t mean do nothing. To me, President Nelson’s quote and these Bible verses go hand in hand. Work, work, work … then give it to God. The battle is His. When I effort, truly effort, the outcome will always be better than what I was aiming for, as long as I surrender that outcome to God.
Additionally, rejections are proof that I am trying, that I am practicing, that I am growing with each effort. After all, my personal purpose in mortality is to use all of my experiences to progress toward becoming more like Christ.
And so, rejections motivate me. They remind me that my efforts matter; they remind me that, if statistics are true, eventually I’ll get an acceptance after all those rejections; they especially remind me that the only truly important result – that of changing, becoming, and progressing – is actually happening, one effort, one rejection at a time.
I am Yellow 