How to Cope With Your Fear of Rejection

Everyone, at some point in their lives, has to face rejection. Being rejected hurts, but you need to deal with it and move on. If rejection makes you give up and stop trying, you will never achieve anything. Sadly, after being rejected once or twice many people develop the fear of rejection and become afraid to try new things and move forward. How to overcome your fear of rejection?

1. Don't blame yourself. When we are rejected, we tend to think that there is something wrong with us. However, in many cases rejection has nothing to do with our skills, behavior, personality, etc. Sometimes it is caused by factors we have no control over. So when you have been rejected, don't blame yourself. There are situations when rejection is just inevitable, no matter how hard you try.

2. Find ways to boost your self-esteem. The fear of rejection is closely connected with low self-esteem, they often form a vicious circle: people with low self-esteem are afraid of being rejected, and when they are indeed rejected, their self-esteem drops even more. To boost your self-esteem you need to stop concentrating on negative experiences and begin to constantly remind yourself about your assets and past successes.

3. Assess your chances objectively. The fear of rejection is irrational, most people who suffer from it are afraid of rejection no matter how high or low their chances for rejection are. Knowing ahead of time what the chances of a particular endeavor being successful are will help you brace yourself for possible rejection. And remember that low chances are not an excuse for not trying. There is always the possibility of success, however tiny it might seem.

4. Keep calm and carry on. Rejection is not the end of the world. Alexander Graham Bell said, “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Once you've been rejected, start looking for the new opportunities. Life has so much to offer!

5. Always have a back-up plan. While trying to achieve their goals, a lot of people develop tunnel vision. Sometimes tunnel vision is really useful because it helps focus, but if you're afraid of rejection, it will only harm. It is important to remember that there always are alternatives. If you're aware of these alternatives, you won't give up after being rejected. So what if plan A failed, you have plan B!