Embrace Rejection
“Whether at work or in personal relationships, genuine transparency goes hand in hand with the very real risk of rejection, nonetheless it is worth that risk”.
The end of May marks the end of this phase of this weekly writing project and looking back over the past 18 weeks, I feel like soundly pushed aside my greatest hindrance to taking action on this project – the fear of being misunderstood, judged and ultimately rejected.
For the past two years I planned to find a platform to share thoughts and practices I gained over years of trying to live a professional life of self-honest reflection. Knowing how often hypocritical and contradictory my words and deeds could be, I spent a year and a half of those two years with the idea in my head, but with fear preventing me from taking any action.
There is only one way to be in any endeavor you truly care about and that is to be “all in”. Whether at work or in personal relationships, genuine transparency goes hand in hand with the very real risk of rejection, nonetheless it is worth that risk.
One of my 2016 goals was to push aside this long standing fear and embrace the fact that rejection to some degree is inevitable. I could continue “planning” or I could take action whether or not I believed myself to be ready.
I asked myself time and again “What is holding you back form giving back”? Despite any rationale, time constraint or excuse, the core of my honest response to this question was always “ME”. Once I got over myself and embraced the possibility of the rejection of others, I was free to take action.
In case you missed any of my previous posts in, here are links to each:
- Build A Brand Workshop
- Maximize the Media
- From Consumer to Contributor
- It’s All About.You
- Schedule Your Promotion
- Progress Over Perfection
- The 60 Second Investment
- Jumpstart Your Motivation through Time Bound Action
- Leveraging LinkedIn: Recommendations and Reciprocity
- Strategic Relationship Building
- Ambidextrous Thinking
- Creating Unique Value
- Let Your Actions Lead Your Attitudes
- If It Ain’t Broke, Improve It
- “So…What do you do”?
- What They See That You Don’t
- Time Off or Time On?
One of my favorite self-coaching quotes is a definition of courage attributed to Mark Twain (and in some versions Nelson Mandela):
“Courage is not the absence of fear; it is taking action in spite of your fears”.
So what is holding you back form giving back?
Visit thyrone.com where you can read all of the above posts and we can connect on LinkedIn and other media. Follow me on Twitter @thyrone and if you are in the Columbus, OH area @careercolumbus.