It sucks.
How can you feel good about putting your art out there when there's a chance that you might be rejected?
It feels sooooo personal when your art is turned down. Your creative endeavors are such an extension of yourself that it can feel like an arrow straight through your heart when rejection hits.
What happens after you’ve been rejected?
Are you stopped in your tracks? Does it spur you to keep going?
Since I’ve been thinking a lot about, this I'm sharing Jia Jiang’s TedTalk, Surprising Lessons From 100 Days of Rejection. His talk is insightful, shows the results of him taking action to seek improvement and it might give you a few new approaches to thinking about your past and future rejections.
Jiang was so crushed by one business rejection that he decided to start his own “rejection therapy” by creating 100 days of rejection. His talk starts a little slow but if you hang in there, you’ll get to hear a few great nuggets of him getting past rejection and how it leads to a lot of confidence and positive experiences.
Take-aways include learning how famous people like writer, CS Lewis, director, Steven Spielberg and President Obama were rejected and what they did with it. In the case of CS Lewis, it only made him a better writer.
If you don’t have time for to watch his video or look at his blog, read this quote from his 100th and last day of rejection:
“My rejection therapy taught me that “the worst they can say is no” is actually not true. In fact, the worst they can say is “you didn’t even ask.” It implies I said “no” to myself before others could reject me. If I have a good reason, it is my duty to step out of my own comfort zone to ask, no matter how difficult and impossible the request is.”
Wow, what an amazing concept.
What opportunities might you be missing because you’ve told yourself no before someone else does?
What can you do about it?
Take action. Can you submit your art for rejection? What if you had a goal to submit it to rejection 10, 20, 50 or 100 times this year?
Yes, you will be rejected if you put your art out there. But, you won't regret it. You might surprise yourself by the yeses you get and the where those experiences take you.
Leave a comment to let me know how you feel about the rejection of your art, Jia Jiang’s 100 days, or if you think you might be interested in taking my suggestion of having a goal of 10, 20, 50 or 100 art rejections.
No matter what, keep on creating!
With much gratitude,
Kate