"Fail better."

Two posts in two days!

Well, despite the picture I posted yesterday of a corgi who swore on the professionalism of this blog, this post is a little bit more...personal.

Yesterday's post mentioned the fact that I interviewed for two jobs but was offered neither of them. You'll notice the fact that while I voiced my frustration over one organization's practices, I didn't say much else about my feelings of not getting the position. I'm guessing that my subconscious knew I'd have to write much more about those feelings than I would have allowed myself in that post (given that I had a lot more to talk about), and so now I'm writing about them here.

The truth? It kills to get that cookie-cutter e-mail of rejection. I was so interested in the position and the work that the organization did, and I could see myself going to work and loving being there, which is more than I can say about most positions. I know that there are always so many circumstances surrounding new hires, but when I get the rejection e-mails, I can't help feeling that it is entirely my fault and that I'm not good enough. I'm really not good at failing. Of course, I don't know many people who are, but I've been lucky (or I guess, unlucky) enough that my life up to this point has been successful and has had relatively few snags. It's been very hard this summer to get rejection letter after rejection letter, without any explanation as to why I won't be a good match.

"It's not you, it's me. I wish you all the best. We will keep in touch! Love, HR"

Anyway, I suppressed the stresses of yesterday's rejection until today, when I had a mini-meltdown while looking for new positions. I had to blog it out a bit and remind myself of all the famous, successful people who never gave up. And I don't care so much about being famous, but it helped me to remind myself that even the most successful people have been rejected again and again before reaching success.

I learn best when I write down information; something about the physical transcription of the words also seems to etch the lessons onto my brain. I decided to help myself remember to keep going by giving myself a temporary tattoo of some motivational words. This isn't the first time I've done this, and it certainly won't be the last.

Wise words from playwright, Samuel Beckett.