Accepting and Understanding rejection
Rejection in any form is like being caught between a rock and a hard place, so you're in a situation where you have to make a choice with both the possibilities being equally unpleasant.
The origin of this idiom is linked to Greek Mythology. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus must pass between two mythical sea monsters Charybdis, a whirlpool, and Scylla, a horrid man-eating, cliff-dwelling monster, both these sea monsters are within reach of another so if you're trying to steer away from Scylla you'll find yourself closer to Charybdis and vice versa.
So your work got rejected, you got rejected from a job interview, you didn't get into that college or university you wanted to go to, someone you liked rejected you and so on; so you have two situations now either you just give up and go back or you can learn something from your efforts and give yourself another shot. Your work got rejected, okay now go and sit at a table, study it as critically as you can evaluate, look for any vagueness, any sentences which create confusion, any mistakes which might have played a part in getting it rejected and ask for a reason. There must be a reason that your work didn't get through, maybe you didn't clearly specify the methodology of your research paper or the results were not written properly or maybe your study design had some major flaws, get the reason and work on that. It's not easy to go back to the whiteboard again and work at it again but it's the only choice to improve. If you have spent a genuine effort, I would say don't give up on it, work on it and improve it, you spent time on it and it deserves to be appreciated and with the right amount of polishing you can get through. So, evaluate your own work critically, find out the mistakes and don't forget to ask for a reason. It wouldn't hurt anyone to give you a reason, if there is one. But if you're trying to submit a research paper on medicine to an electrical engineering journal, that is just not happening, it's like asking a fish to climb a tree. Wherever you submit your work, make sure it is the relevant authority, someone who teaches English Literature most probably wont have an understanding about the conduction system of human heart.
Rejection by someone you like, well first off you need to understand this, you're not special for everyone who talks to you. Sure, we all like to think we are but we aren't special for everyone, most of us are special to people and the number of those people can be counted on your fingers. What you may be thinking, may not have even crossed the mind of the other person, its like sitting in a room blindfolded and you start to assume that there's a lot of food just cause you can smell that pizza, pasta, nihari, payee, spaghetti, burgers and what not, and when the lights are turned on, you see there's no food in your room just that the window was open and the people next door were having a party. The blindfold is what makes us think okay we are special, you're not. Take it off, look at the world then and you'll be a lot lot happier. Without the blindfold you won't be bothered with 99% of the rejections so you save yourself a ton of trouble.
When you find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place, you can either stay there or you can proceed ahead. To proceed ahead, you have to accept that rejection, accepting is the first part, then you sit down and evaluate where the mistake was, with a clear mind you plan and proceed. I like to relate accepting rejection and proceeding ahead to the rock cause you can climb a rock and staying stagnant is what I like to correlate with a hard place, the hard place won't become a soft and comfy mattress.
The origin of this idiom is linked to Greek Mythology. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus must pass between two mythical sea monsters Charybdis, a whirlpool, and Scylla, a horrid man-eating, cliff-dwelling monster, both these sea monsters are within reach of another so if you're trying to steer away from Scylla you'll find yourself closer to Charybdis and vice versa.
So your work got rejected, you got rejected from a job interview, you didn't get into that college or university you wanted to go to, someone you liked rejected you and so on; so you have two situations now either you just give up and go back or you can learn something from your efforts and give yourself another shot. Your work got rejected, okay now go and sit at a table, study it as critically as you can evaluate, look for any vagueness, any sentences which create confusion, any mistakes which might have played a part in getting it rejected and ask for a reason. There must be a reason that your work didn't get through, maybe you didn't clearly specify the methodology of your research paper or the results were not written properly or maybe your study design had some major flaws, get the reason and work on that. It's not easy to go back to the whiteboard again and work at it again but it's the only choice to improve. If you have spent a genuine effort, I would say don't give up on it, work on it and improve it, you spent time on it and it deserves to be appreciated and with the right amount of polishing you can get through. So, evaluate your own work critically, find out the mistakes and don't forget to ask for a reason. It wouldn't hurt anyone to give you a reason, if there is one. But if you're trying to submit a research paper on medicine to an electrical engineering journal, that is just not happening, it's like asking a fish to climb a tree. Wherever you submit your work, make sure it is the relevant authority, someone who teaches English Literature most probably wont have an understanding about the conduction system of human heart.
Rejection by someone you like, well first off you need to understand this, you're not special for everyone who talks to you. Sure, we all like to think we are but we aren't special for everyone, most of us are special to people and the number of those people can be counted on your fingers. What you may be thinking, may not have even crossed the mind of the other person, its like sitting in a room blindfolded and you start to assume that there's a lot of food just cause you can smell that pizza, pasta, nihari, payee, spaghetti, burgers and what not, and when the lights are turned on, you see there's no food in your room just that the window was open and the people next door were having a party. The blindfold is what makes us think okay we are special, you're not. Take it off, look at the world then and you'll be a lot lot happier. Without the blindfold you won't be bothered with 99% of the rejections so you save yourself a ton of trouble.
When you find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place, you can either stay there or you can proceed ahead. To proceed ahead, you have to accept that rejection, accepting is the first part, then you sit down and evaluate where the mistake was, with a clear mind you plan and proceed. I like to relate accepting rejection and proceeding ahead to the rock cause you can climb a rock and staying stagnant is what I like to correlate with a hard place, the hard place won't become a soft and comfy mattress.
Comments
Post a Comment