Basic Life Skill: The Art of Handling Rejection

What is one thing that everyone will experience in life? This experience is not a pleasant one for anyone. To be honest, it just flat out sucks. The experience I am referring to is rejection.

Rejection is a part of life. Anyone that you know or have met has had to deal with this. If this is something that everyone will encounter, why even bring it up?

The purpose of writing about this topic is the fact that you’ll hear many stories of people not being able to handle rejection. Watching Aba and Preach’s video on YouTube (warning: NSFW) inspired me to address this topic. They had a discussion about the guy in the video and his ability to handle rejection. I would have to say the guy was able to have fun knowing that he did not have a chance with the woman. Even during the segment of kissing the girl or taking a shot, the man chose to take a shot instead of forcing an uncomfortable kiss.

While this guy had an appropriate response to rejection, many others do not. How many of you know someone getting harassed after saying no? Do you know someone who has had a nasty rumor spread about them or some other vindictive action after you told a person you weren’t interested? Maybe, you or someone have been hurt by someone because they couldn’t accept rejection.

I believe that learning how to deal with rejection is a part of the growing up process. In case you struggle or know someone who struggles with this, please continue reading.

Move On from the Rejection

In your eyes, maybe you have found the woman or man of your dreams. This person is perfect in every way possible. They are kind, good-looking, and possess the specific qualities you’re looking for in a significant other. Once you are around them, maybe you find the courage to muster up a conversation. After sometime getting to know them, you have decided to be brave and ask them out. Unfortunately, they do not have any romantic interest in you. They only see you as a friend and want to keep your relationship platonic. What should you do in this situation? Should you keep pursuing this person and “win” them over?

The answer is NO. Just take it on the chin and move on. I have to say it SUCKS when your romantic interests rejects you. However, you have to keep your dignity and respect the other person’s stance. There is no obligation for that person to be with you. The person has every right to choose who they find attractive, who piques their interest, and who they want to date. You can be the nicest person in the world and if that person chooses to not see the value in that then that is their choice. Besides, if you choose to keep pursuing the person then you’ll start to gain a reputation for being that “creepy” person. You’ll ruin any chance of being with that person in the future if they do decide to come around and it can negatively impact other relationships of people around as well.

Take Care of Yourself

Rejection can be a huge blow to our ego and self-esteem. It doesn’t feel good to know that someone you find interesting doesn’t reciprocate those same feelings towards you. When this happens, you have to find ways to lift your spirits up. That is through self-care. This blog post here discusses the importance of self-care. I won’t dive too deep into this but it is important to note that one should practice their own self-care in these situations.

If you really want to dive DEEP into creating your own self-care plan, check out the Supportive Father’s self-care course and 30-Day challenge. These offerings will provide comprehensive self-care tips, enable you to reflect, journal, and apply what you learn to your life.

Love Yourself

Lastly, experiencing rejection does not mean that you are not worthy of feeling love. Most importantly, the person that should love you is YOU. Keeping that in mind, it is important to not let your confidence drop just because someone made the choice to not want to be with you. However, that does not mean you’re not worthy of feeling love.

The way you can do this is by continuing to live your best life. Focus on your goals and what you need to do to achieve them. Strengthen those connections to people that you have in your life. Maybe, take on some new experience through traveling or picking up a new hobby.

Conclusion

Rejection is a fact of life. It is bound to happen to just about everyone you know and love. It is important to learn how to handle rejection when it does happen. As people, we have to accept that not everyone is going to find us romantically interesting. When this happens, we must move on and find ways to take care of ourselves. Lastly, loving yourself is one of the best things you can do for yourself especially when something doesn’t go your way.

Doing those three things after receiving rejection will serve you well. You will not taint any relationship you have in your lives and you’ll be much happier.

What other advice do you have for others when it comes to rejection? Please comment down below and help another person.