Artistic director Cathy Mager knows how it feels to have her creative work rejected, and her dreams and ideas quashed ― like all creatives do. It leaves you with a little trauma, she shares with the audience at The Space Digital Culture Talks 2025 but, over the years, Cathy’s learnt to reframe rejection to take the sting out of it.
How does she do it?
Cathy simply turns the focus away from herself and onto the other person by saying:
“Ahh, you’re not ready for me yet”.
For good measure, she adds an effective twist at the end:
“But you will be.”
Next time you feel sore about a rejection, try Cathy’s trick to heal the wound and quickly move on. It’s all part of ‘looking after yourself,’ she says, when failure and rejection are an unavoidable part of every person’s climb to success.
