Rejection Rejection Rejection

A bit like Location Location Location, but you don't actually get a new house and you just cry more.

I'm an artist, therefore rejection is something I know only too well. I'm sure there's many of you out there whom also feel the same/ share the same experiences so I thought I'd focus this blog post on that, so we can all have a cry as one big rejected artistic collective.

It's also because earlier this week, I was unsuccessful for some funding (probably not going to say which funding I applied for) for an animation I'd really like to make. I put a lot of time and effort into the application and also towards researching and writing the animation and so on and so forth. On Monday it was submitted and on Wednesday it was rejected. At least I was put out of misery quickly! Silver linings and all that...

I also just received an email regarding a film festival submission. That too, was rejected. COME AT ME REJECTION. I AM HERE FOR YOU.

I was annoyed directly after I received the email, because it felt that all my hard work, time, effort and future plans had been put to waste. Despite this, my despair/ annoyance faded away fairly quickly, as I know I can't do anything about it and I just have to move forward.

If this happened one year ago, then I'd probably be dwelling on it for a while, but over the past six months, I've been changing my outlook on life/ my thinking pattern and have learned to deal/ cope better with things that occur in my life which are out of my control. Also, I've had more rejection that ever this year, due to that task of job-hunting. 

I think one of the main things to help dealing with rejection is acceptance. If you can at least accept how you're feeling or can accept that what's happened has happened, then you're on the right track. If you continue down the "woe is me" path and let these setbacks knock you down, then you're going to have trouble getting over them. Yes, it's annoying, especially when it's a project one is so passionate about (or you have a constant stream of rejections), but if you let things out of your control get to you, then you'll never make what you want to make or be happy or satisfied with your situation. You can't control life, but you can control how you deal with life #preach

Another thing I find useful in dealing with rejection is not having any expectations or hopes. Wait, that's not meant to sound so depressing: "have no hope"- really, it wasn't! What I mean is don't get your hopes up or expect that because you believe in your project (can be applied to anything i.e. relationships, jobs etc), it doesn't mean someone (or everybody) else will. And you've got to understand this. Nobody owes you anything and not everybody thinks like you, however nice that may be if they did...

I believe if you want to do something badly enough, then you will be able to do it. It might not be what you've originally had in mind because of time or budget for example, but if you let go of your idealisms and free fall into the future and ride with everything life throws at you, then it's actually quite exciting! Maybe you'll realise through rejection, you choose a completely different path to go down and you end up preferring that one. Who knows...

So go forth, embrace rejection and make some amazing art!!

Apologies for how happy and cliched this blog post sounds! MAYBE. But positivity is good, amiright.