Rejections can be hard. Maybe you’re going for a dream job, looking for love, or trying to get approval for your work. You work hard. You think you have a shot and when rejection comes, it can blindside you and dark thoughts start to creep in.
“You’re not good enough. You’ll never amount to anything.”
“Your hard work is for naught. You’ve been wasting your time.”
“No one is ever going to like your work, love you, or accept you.”
But when that fire is there. It’s there for a reason. The future is dark–no one knows what will happen–today is where the light shines. So, what can you do for your dream today?
This morning, I heard something on the radio that drew a tears from my eyes: “Rejection is Redirection.” Basically saying: your dream may have gotten rejected, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something better down the road. There’s a plan, you just can’t see it.
I’m going to try to hold on to this phrase. Someday, I want to publish my book. I hope to write an awesome fantasy series and share it with the world.
And, so far, I’ve been rejected over 100 times.
Granted, when I started querying I didn’t know what I was doing. I was shooting in the dark without proper knowledge on how to query. When the rejections started pouring in, I learned that my novel wasn’t at the place I thought it was. I learned it again and again and again. So, in a way, a lot of these rejections turned me in the right direction for improvements for my novel. The publishers and agents I’ve been querying likely aren’t the ones in the plan for me. I just haven’t found the right one yet and it’s likely I need these rejections to help me improve my novel before I find that right publisher.
So, when you get rejected, take your time to grieve, but then try to look for the reason. Look for the redirection that will lead you to greater things down the road.
nikki diekemper 