It is a basic human need to be loved. The opposite of love is indifference, the deepest form of rejection a person can experience.

Rejection comes in other forms as well – an unreturned phone call, a missed appointment, a subtle, yet clear ‘no’ to your every suggestion.

At those things can feel like rejection. And rejection hurts.

But what if we were to see that what appears to be rejection as a redirection to a more amazing experience that, had you not been ‘shifted’, may never have come to pass?

What if absolutely everything happens just as it should — even the crappy stuff — to get you to an even more awesome place?

When I was a young kid, I helped my mom study for a real estate seminar she was taking. She had to learn positive affirmations to keep her, and her growing client base, motivated. The one saying that has stuck with me to this day has to do with failure, also a type of rejection from what you think is ‘right’:

I never see failure as failure, but as the opportunity to change the course of my direction.

I am a firm believer in all good things in good time. So when things aren’t so great, know that they will be. Rejection isn’t what you think. It is actually a gift in an ugly disguise. It is the very thing that is getting you to yes in an even bigger way in your life.

So the next time you hear ‘no’, think ‘yes!’ because you can scratch that item off your list of to-dos. ‘No’ really just means ‘next’!