One rejection email shouldn’t rewrite your whole plan. Edit the plan. Keep the goal.

A single no is data about one route, not about the destination. The temptation is to reorganise your entire future, usually downward, as though one decision from one group of people has shown you what you are capable of. The sensible response is smaller: change the method, keep the aim.

After a no, wait a day before deciding anything. Then change one specific thing: a different place, a stronger piece of work, somebody to look over the application. Leave the goal where it is until you have tried three routes to it.