Rejection is a part of life, both personally and professionally. We all face it and it’s unavoidable. But, it’s also a great learning opportunity. Whether it’s about your self-confidence or how you interact with people, what’s important is how you learn to get over it and what you take away from it. Believe it or not, it takes some practice but learning how to deal with rejection comes down to 5 simple factors.
Accept It
Know that it’s a part of your romantic life and you will have to deal with it. The sooner you accept it and know that you will grow stronger from it the less power fear will have over you.
Learn From It
Make sure you take away something from the rejection. Whether it’s learning from a mistake you made or that a particular someone wasn’t right for you, rejection can be a powerful learning experience.
Give It Time
Getting over rejection takes time, so be patient. Focus on yourself – your health, fitness, mental strength and you’ll emerge stronger and better. Don’t beat yourself up after a short period of time, time heals all, as the old saying goes.
It’s Not The End Of The World
Yes, it’s a terrible cliche but it’s absolutely true. Lean on your support group of friends and family and try to take a step back and look at the big picture. Every person you probably admire has been rejected and moved on to do great things and you can too!
Get Rejected More Often
Getting rejected more often is actually a good tool. It actually makes it easier to deal with and helps you understand and move on more quickly. Also, getting rejected means you’re taking risks and living life to the fullest.
Some people are born with it, some people aren’t, but confidence is definitely something that anyone can have. It just takes some work and a positive attitude. Confidence can help you in all facets of life, from dating to professional settings, so that’s why we’re sharing a few tips on how to be more confident.
Identify self-limiting thoughts/actions
Whether you work through it on your own or with a professional, getting clarity on where you lack confidence is an important step in changing it. Whether it’s facing your fears or understanding where negative thoughts come from you’ve got to know where you stand to improve.
Know The Truth: You Are Great
We all have self-doubt, it’s part of life, but confidence starts from the inside out, and working on loving yourself and recognizing your own great qualities is a key point in becoming more confident.
Talk To Yourself
This might seem a bit weird at first but it really works. It can take many forms from mantras you say to yourself at the beginning of the day to just giving yourself a pep talk before a big date or job interview, putting yourself in the right frame of mind can really help you feel more confident.
Practice
Confidence takes practice. From consistently working your own processes to just interacting with people on a regular basis, practice makes perfect. The more you work on it, the better you’ll get.
Be Positive
Confidence also starts with a positive outlook. By cultivating a positive outlook on life, social interactions, work, etc. you’ll be able to focus on being genuinely happy with yourself and others
One final point, know the difference between confidence and arrogance. There’s a fine line between being confident and cocky. Confident people are engaging and fun to be around, arrogant people come off as disingenuous and rude. Yes, it’s important to know your worth but you never want to think you’re better than anyone, projecting the right type of confidence will bring people to you whereas arrogance can just turn people off.
It’s back to school time again, so we thought we should share a bit of advice and wisdom for all you students out there. School is a time for fun, sure, but it’s also time to start thinking about and working on your future. So with that in mind, here’s some of our favorite advice that every student should know.
Relax
The pressure you’ll feel is self or community imposed. All the decisions you think are completely life-changing are easily fixable if you keep your head about you and don’t fall for the trap that the major or direction you choose now is what you have to do for the rest of your life. Take your time, you don’t have to figure it all out at once.
Start good habits now
Good habits will absolutely carry through long past graduation day. So start taking your mental and physical health seriously. Work on things like eating better, getting enough sleep, reading more, and putting a productivity workflow into place (check out GTD, Pomodoro Technique, Bullet Journaling). Learn how to find your motivation and use it.
Learn how to be a good conversationalist
This skill is something that will be useful for the rest of your life. Be genuinely interested to learn about other people. Whether you’re making new friends or using your conversation skills for networking, being confident and comfortable making conversation is really important.
Internships
If you’re in college, even as a freshman – start looking into company internships NOW. They will show you what it’s really like to work for a certain type of company or industry. Use these as a try-out for potential careers. You can also talk to your guidance counselors and career centers and ask if they have any specific programs for this.
Learn money management
While it’s not taught in most schools, learning how to budget is huge. Look up personal finance (try Reddit) and how even putting $20 or $100 a month now will give you financial freedom much earlier in life – even if you’re working in a low-wage job. Don’t take on unnecessary debt. It’s easy to get sucked into putting things on a credit card, so don’t do it unless you have the means to pay it off everything month. Also, build credit as early and quickly as possible by getting a credit card and only adding 1 autopay item to it that you automatically pay off each month. If you’re worried about yourself, send it somewhere – parent, friend, etc. – if you’d be tempted to use it for unnecessary spending.
Evaluate your career/life goals
Think hard, do you actually need to be in school right now? Trades pay incredibly well and most don’t require college degrees. Your late teens and early twenties will see lots of changes. Not sure if school is for you? Take a gap year and go explore career opportunities! Education is important but school will always be there for you when the time is right.
Take responsibility for your decisions
You don’t get to blame your parents for your problems anymore. As you come of adult age, it’s time to be responsible for your thoughts and actions. You can’t blame anyone else for what happens to you from here on out. It’s up to you now to make your life as good or bad as you want it. If things aren’t going well in your life, start with numero uno and figure out what’s happening before jumping to blame outside factors. You dictate the way your life goes and you have the opportunity to make it what you want. The world doesn’t care about you enough to cause you to fail.
Evaluate all your friendships
The friendships you make during your school years will often impact your life in negative and positive ways you won’t foresee now. Toxic people can hinder you from being the best version of yourself and we talked about taking responsibility for everything earlier. Now it’s time to let that also dictate who you surround yourself with. As the saying goes, you’re the sum of the 5 people you hang with the most. So surround yourself with only good people.
Learn tact
Saying inappropriate things to people is something that’ll be harder to shake as you get older. Follow the 2-minute rule. Listen for approximately two minutes before interjecting into a conversation. You convey tact, have context of the subject matter, and understand the contributor’s style. Tact is a huge part of those conversationalist skills we mentioned earlier.
Get to know your professors
In your later years, good relationships with professors can lead to recommendations, research, and job opportunities. Don’t think your adjunct professors can’t help you, too. A lot of them actually work in the industry you’re interested in and teach as a side gig. Most faculty members are delighted when students visit them to ask about the readings, the course topic, or just to get to know them. Professors are required to hold office hours for students: your tuition is paying for that kind of contact. So use it!
You’ve entered an exciting and formative time in your life, so make the most of it! As we said, setting yourself up for success in the future starts now.
Getting your day off to a great start with a solid morning routine is super important, and once you’ve set yourself up for the day in a good frame of mind everything else will fall into place. Sure, a good morning grooming routine is key, but it’s more than that. As the saying goes, “The morning maketh the day.” So wake up, let’s go!
#1 – Remove friction in the morning
A smooth morning starts with getting preparing the night before – set out your clothing, write down your to-do list, prepare your breakfast, whatever you need for a nice onramp into the day. A little prep goes a long way.
#2 – Make your bed
It’s not just about being neat, this small act of routine helps create an early win and sets you up for mental success for the rest of the day. Yes, seriously. Hey, this guy swears by it, and we think he knows a thing or two.
#3 – Wake up early
Now we’re not advocating a 5 am wake up call if you’re not a morning person but it is important to set aside enough time to have a stress and rush-free morning. Try adding 15-30 minutes for a few of these tips and see how well it works.
Everyone’s ideal breakfast is different, from eggs to a protein shake, but starting solid, nutritious base wil fuel you both mentally and physically for the whole day.
#6 – Make a to-do list
Kicking off the day with an organizational exercise is a great way to starting thinking clearly and stay focused. Create 1 to 3 MIT’s (Most Important Things) for the day and do those before you do anything else.
#7 – Take a tech timeout
Sure, we all do it, the alarm goes off and we immediately grab our phones. But it’s time to break that habit and start with waiting to check your phone in the morning. We’re on our devices all day and it’s important to start the day off with a break so skip the phone, email, and social media until after you’ve marked some MIT’s off your list or eaten breakfast.
#8 – Get the blood flowing
Whether you’re a morning workout person or not, getting the blood moving early on is great for your mental state. Hit the gym, go for a run, or even just do a set of pushups or jumping jacks, you’ll have a more productive day and start in a better mood.
