Rejection is Opportunity

In light of several recent events I have decided to re-enter the blogosphere, this time under a new name to protect the innocent and the guilty. The sermon today is on the lessons one can learn from rejection. Here I speak of rejection in the broadest sense. This can mean being fired from a job, having a male/female bar you, not getting into a school you wanted to go to or a variety of other seemingly negative outcomes. We have seen Americans across the country and Worldians across the world reacting to rejection by creating opportunity since the beginning of each, but especially in recent rough economic waters through the invention of new things - some progressive, some nefarious. Nobody likes to be rejected. We become accustomed to a certain position vis-a-vis others and do not want that to change. Dynamics of power are involved and rejection means losing.

The opportunity comes because rejection presents an opportunity to re-assess oneself to assert an even better position. The power dynamics allow us to become comfortable, but stagnant and inefficient. The proof of this is in the pudding -or lack thereof: when women are in relationships they tend to gain weight. I did not do research on this, but it is obvious, well-accounted for and has surely been studied vastly. When women are no longer in relationships they dust off their gym memberships, start jogging, pick up a new sport, eat less and start boning down with tons of men as exercise.

If we're talking about work, getting fired or laid off can be one of the greatest things that can happen to somebody. I was fired from a job a little less than two years ago. It was a job I hated, but was too lazy to quit for myself. Getting fired lit a fire under me to make something new happen. As of now things have never been better.

Rejection allows us to look at life's situations with fresh eyes, which makes me ask: what if we could do this all the time? What if instead of "thinking outside the box," people took the perspective that "there is no box?" It may cause some destruction, but it may cause some progress - I don't know. But I do think that the lessons learned from rejection can be a valuable model for how to operate regardless of circumstances.