This Is the Secret to Success I Will Continue to Rely on

image Licensed from Adobe Stock

I am normalizing rejection.

Put another way, I am aiming to get rejected because by doing that, I am increasing my odds of being, well, not rejected.

I used to be terrified of rejection. I have gone to great lengths of self-sabotage to avoid getting rejected. I have lost out on friendships, academic opportunities, and job opportunities because I couldn’t bear the thought of losing. If I wasn’t over-qualified, I found myself to be deeply under-qualified.

Apart from the obvious problems with this approach, another huge flaw is this: It takes trial and error to get better at anything worth pursuing. There are no perfect [insert accomplished title].

There are highly skilled individuals.

But the people who make it to the top of their industry do so by becoming practitioners of their craft.

They work hard at it. They learn to work smart. They learn how to focus on their areas of improvement. Using this approach, successful individuals learn a great deal about themselves, their craft, and the world.

Doesn’t it just sound better than twitching from the anxiety of thinking you might not be good enough?

What if your focus was on how to get to where you’re going instead of…