Keep Trying

 

Don’t Give Up

“This event also taught me that these people—the ones who stand at the gates of our dreams—are not automatons. They are just people. They are just like us. They are whimsical and quirky. They’re a little different every day, just as you and I are a little different every day.”

Elizabeth Gilbert (Big Magic, p.194-195; Riverhead Books, 2015)

           In the quote above, Gilbert is referencing a female magazine editor to whom she submitted a short story. The editor rejected it the first time. The second time it was submitted, the same woman accepted it. Gilbert describes how many articles and short stories an editor reads to find just one publishable story: “picture a tower of manilla envelopes stacked up to the sky.” These people are not gods that hold our fate in their hands, they are people just like you and me. They have good days and bad ones, they argue with their mates, they turn an ankle on the stairs, they get calls from school saying a child is sick. In other words, things unrelated to you can cause them to make seemingly dichotomous decisions, so don’t let one rejection consign your dreams to an underground bunker. Try again. And again.

          I wrestle with this every day. So many of us are just that insecure, especially when we are offering something of ourselves that is precious and personal. We like to think that everyone will feel about us and our work the same way we do, but that is unrealistic. I don’t feel the same way every day, and I’ll bet you don’t either. I have artists and writers who are favorites and others I don’t care for, don’t you? There are people who rub me the wrong way, and the same is true for you. That probably says nothing about them, and more about me.

The recommendation for overcoming rejection of any sort is the same one you got from your mother or daddy when you fell off your bike and scuffed up your knees—brush yourself off, get back on, and try again. Giving up is not an option.

          It doesn’t matter what you are attempting to do. If you give up after one failure, or even two, you are dooming yourself. Picture your skin growing a little thicker…shoot, picture yourself in chainmail and armor if need be. Learn to laugh at yourself a little; taking oneself too seriously is always disastrous. There are millions of people on this planet who are trying and failing and trying again. There are millions more who refuse to give up on a dream. Eventually, they succeed, but even if they don’t, they learn determination and grit—two essential skills on the road to success. Keep trying. Don’t give up.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane