How to deal with rejection

Almost every day I think about concepts I want my kids to understand early in life, like how to deal with rejection. Ones that I wish I operated out of sooner. Ones that if they truly got, could save them a lot of pain and turmoil and perhaps even give them an advantage in this wild ride. These are a few I have been thinking about recently. . .

5 valuable concepts I wish I knew sooner

You can stay in touch with your emotions without becoming attached to them:

It’s important to acknowledge how you feel, especially when you feel heavy, but simultaneously understand that this feeling won’t last forever. Being able to witness thoughts and emotions without getting caught up and taken out by them is one of the most valuable skills any human can learn. You are the phenomenal vessel through which anxiety and hundreds of other emotional experiences flow. Suffering happens when you get attached to thoughts, emotions, and beliefs instead of witnessing and letting them go.

How to deal with rejection: Being OK with failure, rejection, and feedback is a superpower:

One of the common traits I see among those who seem to succeed at higher levels and rarely give up is this: They are ok with a no. They don’t take a ‘no’, or a rejection, or a failed experiment, personally. They understand that failure is not the opposite of success — it’s part of it. Wind can blow out a candle or fuel a fire. It’s the same with feedback and rejection and you can decide which one it does for you.

If you believe it will work out, you’ll see opportunities. If you believe it won’t you will see obstacles:

This is a literal fact. Your brain sees what it’s looking for, you can read my whole post about this here. A very powerful concept to take advantage of.

An object in motion stays in motion:

Getting depressed is our body telling us we’re building momentum in the wrong thing. The hardest part is starting the motion. I have found this applies to almost every area of life. Work, relationships, health, it all starts with doing something you don’t feel like doing, but once you start, it’s hard to stop. Just do it and it will get better.

Our power in life comes from focusing on what we can control, not what we can’t:

In life, unfortunate things happen. When they do, it can be easy or tempting to become reactive and focus on what isn’t going well. Focusing on circumstances or things that are happening to us is far less effective than focusing on how we can respond to those things and what we can do about them. Blaming all your emotions on events and people outside of you creates a situation where you are constantly giving your power away. Taking responsibility for your mindset, no matter what someone does opens up an entire new world of freedom when you realize that your own perception impacts your reactions and mood.

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Find of the Week

Tip #1 Stop the Junk Mail

Have you ever wondered if there is an unsubscribe button for mail like there is for email? I sure have. I came across this email about how to unsubscribe from junk mail and I will be trying it out immediately.

Tip #2 A.I. Hacks

Check out this video from the creators of The Social Dilemma talking about the potential good and harm of A.I.

“50% of A.I. researchers believe there’s a 10% or greater chance that humans go extinct from our inability to control A.I.”

“It’ll become better than any known human at persuasion.”

Although the dangers of A.I. are terrifying, it can be used to do some pretty cool things. Like summarizing books. Try using this prompt to get a book summary. This has honestly been blowing my mind.

“You are a book summarizer. For the book [insert title and author here], you will create a one-paragraph summary of each chapter followed by a bulleted list of the key points in each chapter. When summarizing, do not elaborate further than the single paragraph and bulleted list for each chapter. If you understand, please respond with yes without elaborating.”)

I also like to use it for meal planning. Just share the details of what you are searching for and you can have an entire plan put together for you in seconds.