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This weekly newsletter comes to you every Saturday, featuring anti-hustle productivity tips, personal fulfillment stories, and the behind-the-scenes inside scoop of life as a solopreneur.

Hi Reader,

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I was not planning on having (yet another!) dance story* for you today, but as solopreneurs, our personal lives and our professional lives are deeply connected and intertwined — and there are many life lessons and business lessons that we can learn from and apply to all of it!

…which is why I want to talk about dance through the lens of REJECTION today (and how, as always, this connects back to YOUR life and/or business).

It goes like this:

Back in December, I realized that a dance festival in Winnipeg (happening later this year) would be taking place just a week after I would be visiting town anyway. And — thanks to a business model that allows for lots of flexibility with travel! — I figured, Why not extend the trip so I can attend the festival?

And THEN I thought to myself, If I’m going to attend the festival anyways… Why not apply to perform at it?

It took maybe 45 minutes to submit my application (most of that was me figuring out what to say in my bio, lol!), plus a $15 fee. That was it.

To my mind it was a win/win: Either I’d be accepted and I’d get to perform at my first-ever festival, OR I’d be rejected and a) I wouldn’t need to spend a bunch of time/energy reworking choreography and upgrading my costume, plus b) it’d give me a chance to sit back and enjoy the festival in the audience with friends.

Earlier this month, I received a very kind rejection letter from them — and my reaction was about 3 seconds of “ah well, that’s too bad,” followed by celebrating it and posting the screenshot on social media to share the news with the world.

Because here’s the thing:

Rejection tells you that you’ve stretched your comfort zone.

Rejection tells you that you put yourself out there.

Rejection tells you that you have the capacity to build on your existing skills.

In short? Rejection is not a bad thing.

→ Rejection can help you to build resiliency.**

→ Rejection can help you to check on your confidence levels AND your willingness to examine your weaknesses and areas of improvement.

→ Rejection can teach you a lot about your internal fears.

→ Rejection can help you identify what you genuinely want to work toward.

→ Rejection can help you to expand upon your skills and abilities!

It’s 100% okay to feel disappointed. It’s very normal to have discomfort about rejection. It's important to recognize those feelings and sit with them (rather than to run away from them or shove them under the mask in the name of toxic positivity).

...And also, rejection can be USEFUL for you ♥

I trained myself pretty early on to “normalize” rejection (mostly from book publishers when I was a teenager — I received quite a few form letters politely telling me “no” when I submitted sample chapters of my novels!), but even so, it can sometimes be a little nerve-wracking.

The trick is to PRACTICE the normalization of it: The more you put yourself out there and take rejections as opportunities, the less nerve-wracking it feels and the better your relationship becomes with rejection.

Pssst...

You and I can work on this practice together — and help you work through any fears and discomfort associated with rejection or visibility — in life coaching sessions.

When you shy away from the mere possibility of rejection, you will quit before you even get started. And THAT will eliminate any chance at acceptance.

This weekend, I encourage you to put yourself out there. Stretch your comfort zone a little! Begin to welcome the rejections so that it paves the way for more of what you WANT.

Consider this your 3-question starting point for learning to welcome rejections:

Think about something you'd love to do, but have yet to openly express it or apply for it etc.

1. What will it “cost you” to put yourself out there? (e.g. How much time or money; feelings of embarrassment, etc)
2. What happens if you get a YES vs if you get a NO? (e.g. What are the benefits of each? How can you approach it with a win/win mentality, like I did with the festival application?)
3. What could THIS rejection pave the way for in the future? (e.g. An ability to put yourself out there and receive acceptances in the future)

We can dive into all of this together in coaching sessions, so don't worry! Rejection doesn't need to feel intimidating forever, and you CAN learn to get more comfortable with it. Book your sessions today and let's work on it together.

As always, I love hearing from you…

What's coming up for you? Did you have any "aha" moments as a result of exploring this?

Hit reply and let me know!

Have a great weekend,
Sagan (she/her)

Personal Fulfillment & Solopreneur Productivity Coach
​SaganMorrow.com

Footnotes:

* Dance stuff has been a major focus of my personal life lately, so — since it’s on my mind — that’s what we’re sharing around here ;) In case you missed it, click HERE to read last week’s edition of the Solopreneur Diary Entries newsletter.

** If you put yourself out there 150 times and ONLY get rejections, then that’s probably something to examine further — because there might be some more work to do behind the scenes or something that needs fixing!

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