The Force of Rejection
I’ve been thinking a lot about rejection and how
when you are an artist of any kind, singer, dancer, painter, actor, writer, you
are at some point going to put you or your work out into the public arena. A place
where you or your craft will be observed, picked apart, criticised, and judged
and then more often times that not rejected.
I have experienced this many times and believe it
has contributed to a sense of crippling self-doubt and some I-give-up-and-am-staying-in-bed
depressive states that I have battled with on many occasion. But it had me
wondering, why oh why, even in the face of rejection do I carry on?What is it that keeps me going and in spite of the constant slamming of doors do I pick myself up dust myself off and carry on?
I mean don’t get me wrong this is of course after much wailing and crying screaming and shouting to anyone that will listen that I am not and will in no way ever put myself through it again. I am talking tantrums that would rival any three year old, I stamp my feet, I throw myself on the floor while doing three sixty exorcism type spins, screaming till I am red in the face and the neighbours come knocking with concerns of a murder most horrid. No I am kidding; it’s not that bad, although nobody has actually witnessed the full force of my ruminations over my ruined life, so this opinion borders on the severely biased.
So what is it then? Well after much pondering I have
come to the conclusion that it’s the force, (Yoda would be proud) it’s actually
the force of rejection which keeps me going. If I hadn’t of experienced it, if I
didn’t know what rejection actually felt like I wouldn’t carry on, it’s a paradox.
I mean if getting to the top of your own artistic mountain was easy, you just wouldn’t
do it, you’d keep putting it off until tomorrow, until one day you realised you’ve
run out of tomorrow’s and its too late. It had to be hard, there had to be obstacles and
pitfalls and most of all rejection, as it made me better, it made me stronger, wiser
and most of all it made me go back to the beginning, figure out what I could
have possibly not got right, and do it again differently. It’s the only way you
improve your craft, it’s the only way you get better as an artist, and it’s the
force that keeps you carrying on.
The Force of Rejection.
Is your friend, if you let it be, it’s the chisel in
your creative tool box that carves your
raw talent from a lump of rock into a work of art and eventually like oh I don’t
know say like Michelangelo’s David, one day many will come to laud and marvel
at it.
Of course don’t believe me, believe the force.
Work it does, in me trust, with you always!
(please comment below or on my face book, all references
to Star Wars will be accepted as one is a major Sci-fi geekess and loves it
when you quote anything from BSG, ST, SW, DC comics and Sci-fi films pre 1999)
