Try collecting nos on purpose for a month. You’ll notice they stop hurting and start being funny.

Rejection hurts partly because it is rare and unplanned, arriving as a verdict rather than as part of a process. When you go looking for it deliberately, it changes category, becoming a number you are accumulating rather than a judgement you received. After twenty of them the sting genuinely fades.

Set a target of collecting a certain number of nos in the next month. Ask for things you expect to be declined, out loud and politely. You will notice a few unexpected yeses arrive alongside them.