The 3 biggest health mistakes made after being rejected for partnership
E106: how to rebuild your energy, health, and confidence after rejection
It's the weekend and you're waiting for the call.
It feels like university finals all over again when your stomach is lurching from one scrunching knot to the next.
You’ve spent years working hard, sacrificing weekends, and building relationships, all while keeping your sights set on making partnership.
And then, the call comes in and your stomach sinks further: you didn’t make it.
In the face of the disappointment when you're near and yet so far from your goal, it's easy to veer off course.
But it's not just the professional decisions that are hard, like deciding whether you stay and try again next year, or uproot yourself and your relationships and try somewhere else.
It's also the decisions that can inadvertently impact your health at a time when you need it the most as your foundation.
Here are the three biggest health mistakes associates make after being rejected for partnership.
I've also offered some ideas to help you regain balance and perspective.
ps If you're an entrepreneur, lawyer, or high-performing professional ready to go beyond the smoothie and want to explore how to rebuild your energy, health, and confidence after rejection, let’s have a conversation about how to create balance and clarity in your plan for partnership.
Mistake 1 (Brain): You fall into the blame spiral
When the rejection comes, your head goes into a tailspin.
“It must be me,” you think.
You replay the year over and over in your mind, wondering what you did wrong.
Did clients not like you enough?
Did your sponsor not have enough clout to carry you over the line?
You go down the doom loop, asking ‘What if, what if, what if’ all day and night.
Blaming yourself, even silently, will drain your energy. And everyone around you will notice the shift in your energy and mood, even if they don’t say anything. The partners notice it and even the associates.
This is the same mood or energy that will stop you from making partnership next time around. Do you want to be around someone with a poor mood and toxic energy?
Do you know who doesn’t have that mood or energy? People who make partner. People who make partner have high energy, confidence, and give people a sense of trust. It’s not about bravado or bragging. It’s a calm, centered energy that exudes confidence in what you’re doing.
So, what if you haven’t emerged from your funk the next time the partnership round rolls around?
Well, you might as well kiss your chance goodbye. Prepare your congratulations for your associate friends who will make partner.
Clearly, I don’t want this option for you.
Mistake 2 (Body): You sacrifice your health to "prove them wrong"
You’re determined to bounce back. But instead of pausing to reflect, you double down. You start working even harder, staying later at the office, scouring your contacts list to secure other clients, and volunteering for transactions that you could do if you had 50 hours in day.
In the process, your health suffers.
After all, with something as important as making partner, who has time to think about health?
Your sleep becomes optional. Your meals become quick fixes, empty calories, sugary soft drinks, salty fast food.
I even had one client who told me, “Eric, I’m drinking Coke and popping M&Ms just to get me through the night.
Exercise and moving your body, breaking sweat, getting stronger? Forgotten.
You tell yourself it’s temporary—that you’re proving to the firm (and yourself) that you should have made partner. But pushing harder at the expense of your foundations leads to burnout, not breakthroughs.
In addition to being quick and not having to think about it, the Coke and M&Ms diet feels good. It’s comforting. And who wouldn’t want a touch of comfort after a painful rejection?
Mistake 3 (Heart): Not trusting your heart
When you’ve aced all your exams your whole life, it’s easy to rely on your brain to solve all your problems.
But your brain is poor at solving the problem of what to do after being rejected from your partnership attempt.
Remember: Your brain is not the only part of you that is wise.
In that moment of rejection, it feels scary to hit “pause” on your brain and stop it from overriding your other sources of wisdom.
Try it—ask your heart, “What do I need right now?” You’ll get a different answer.
As I shared in Effortless Thursdays edition 82, we ignore the wisdom in our heart at our peril.
Instead of telling you to grab Coke and M&Ms, your heart will tell you to reach for your flask containing your Rejection Reset Smoothie.
When you’re standing on the precipice, don’t turn to your brain—turn to your heart.
It knows what to do.
A chance to reset
I won’t sugarcoat it—it takes hard work and time to make these lasting changes. It’s tough to recalibrate your brain, body, and heart. Not an overnight change, by any means.
But when you’re head down, eating Coke and M&Ms, you just need a helping hand. Something to pick you up off the mat so you can continue the fight.
I’ve got the perfect solution.
If you’re stuck in the tailspin of rejection, there’s one simple tool to help reset your health and energy.
This tool fuels your body with exactly what it needs: stable energy, reduced inflammation, and a calm, clear mind.
It’s the Rejection Reset Smoothie.
It’s a Swiss Army knife for restoring balance.
By giving your body the nutrients it needs, this smoothie helps create a foundation for health that can unlock your success everywhere else.
It’s the stepping stone to rebuilding the calm energy and confidence that rejection can take away.
Packed with nutrients, it stabilises your energy, reduces inflammation, and sharpens your focus—creating the foundation for clarity and confidence.
Reply with “Rejection Reset Smoothie”, and I’ll share the recipe with you.
👉 Over to you
What’s one way you’ve handled rejection that helped you regain your energy and perspective?
That’s it for this week!
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To your health, joy, and success—one step at a time!
Eric
Not in a rejection state yet (fingers crossed) but would love that smoothie recipe :)