When we spend time worrying about things that could go wrong, we’re not spending time trying to improve. Which means that worrying about things going wrong increases the chances that they will go wrong.
Accepting that sometimes we will succeed and sometimes fail frees us to pursue achievements and to spend time thinking about what we can do instead of what we can’t.
“Most business is built on a foundation of rejection. If a business hired everyone who applied for its jobs or bought every product a sales rep offered it, then it would be bankrupt in ten minutes,” says Martin, an acting coach who has counseled hundreds of budding thespians.
“Unless you don’t want anything, you’ll have to learn how to love rejection, because it will be coming.” He points to the acting business for ample evidence. “There isn’t an actor you’ve heard of—there isn’t an actor alive—who hasn’t been rejected for more parts than they’ll ever get.
“It doesn’t mean that you love to lose,” Martin believes, “but that you embrace the process that gets you to the outcome you want. And rejection is just a step in the process.”
In a survey of high-tech employees, those who spend “a lot” of time worrying about their jobs are 17 percent less productive than workers who “seldom” or “never” worry about their job.
Verbeke and Bagozzi 2000