In the middle of 2025 I decided to take a break from work. I left my job, checked off a bucket-list item by completing my first half ironman, visited family, and spent time with my own thoughts. My days were filled with walks with my dog, bingeing trash tv, and an uncomfortable amount of inactivity and silence. At a certain point I said “I’m over it. Time to get grinding again.” So, I dusted off my personal laptop that I hadn’t opened since 2019 and began to build towards a new job search.

I’ve done this before. I know how exhausting it is. I know that no matter how confident I might feel, rejection and burnout is imminent. I know now that it’ll take 10 “no’s” for every “yes”. So this time, I approached the job search with a different perspective on rejection. This time, rejection won’t be a personal attack. It won’t bruise my confidence. It won’t even be a negative moment. Instead, it will act in two parts. First, as feedback and then as a challenge. In other words, what can I learn from each interview and then what will I do to improve? I’ll give myself permission to make as many new mistakes as I can as long as I don’t make the same mistakes.

This mindset kept my emotions surprisingly neutral throughout the whole job search process. Rejections didn’t force me into emotional lows. Instead, I said “great, how can I improve?” and “I’ll edit this in my next interview so that I won’t get that feedback again.” Similarly, positive results didn’t loft me into extreme highs. When I got moved on to next stages I didn’t celebrate. I just treated it as another opportunity to execute. This mindset also gave me space to see more clearly. When there were opportunities that didn’t feel like were a fit I backed out of the interview process confidently instead of forcing something out of desperation.

In early December, I accepted an offer, and even in that moment my mentality stayed the same. Another opportunity to learn. Another opportunity to execute. This time felt different though. Instead of heading back to the drawing board, I closed my laptop, slid it back into the living room credenza, and walked away. I smiled thinking about letting that thing gather a new layer of dust.