That Old Chestnut

“That old chestnut,” a friend said to me recently after I’d received a blow of rejection around my writing. Truthfully, I have become well acquainted with rejection, not so much that I welcome it, but enough to know how it affects me and how to best navigate it.

Generally, that old chestnut gets cleaned up and buried in the ground. If it’s dealt with in a healthy manner, do you know what that chestnut of rejection can lead to? A tree of resilience. Plain and simple—you need this to make it through any given day in life. And I’d say you probably need a heap more if you’re a sensitive creative.

Resilience isn’t about turning a deaf ear to criticism or rejection, it’s about what you do with it. If you’re hurt by something or someone— feel the pain, don’t deny it, but don’t give it planning permission to build a complex in your mind. 

If a chestnut didn’t take to the ground it had been planted in, it would never fulfil its design of forming roots and growing into a tree. It’s the same with us creatives. We’ve got to have roots. Good ones. Thick ones. Deep ones. Roots keep you. 

It’s funny because the more I’ve faced disappointment or rejection the deeper my roots have gone and the stronger my resolve has become. The dictionary describes ‘resolve’ as “Firm determination to do something.” But that firm determination has to come from somewhere and perhaps it originated in that old chestnut...