Re­jec­tion is of­ten a bless­ing in dis­guise, guid­ing you to­ward a dif­fer­ent path that aligns more close­ly with your true po­ten­tial.

Re­flect on where re­jec­tion has redi­rect­ed you. Con­sid­er whether there are al­ter­na­tive routes to your goals that you haven’t yet ex­plored.

Fo­cus on What You Can Con­trol - It’s easy to feel pow­er­less when ob­sta­cles pile up, but the key to per­se­ver­ance lies in fo­cus­ing on what you can con­trol. Com­mit­ment to dai­ly ef­fort, a pos­i­tive at­ti­tude, and a re­lent­less work eth­ic will al­ways be with­in your grasp.

Ac­tion Step: Iden­ti­fy one as­pect of your life or train­ing that you can im­prove to­day. Small, con­sis­tent ac­tions lead to big re­sults over time.

Re­mem­ber Your "Why" - When you feel like giv­ing up, re­con­nect with your pur­pose. Why did you start this jour­ney? What fu­els your pas­sion? Let your "why" be the fire that keeps you mov­ing for­ward, even when the path seems un­clear.

Er­ic LeGrand, a US col­lege foot­ball play­er paral­ysed dur­ing a game, now in­spires mil­lions through mo­ti­va­tion­al speak­ing. Though his ca­reer on the field end­ed, his "why"—a love for the game and a de­sire to im­pact oth­ers—pro­pelled him in­to a new role as a sym­bol of re­silience. Ac­tion Step: Write down your "why" and keep it vis­i­ble. Let it re­mind you why your hard work and sac­ri­fices are worth it.

Foot­baller Kevin Moli­no suf­fered nu­mer­ous knee in­juries that re­quired ma­jor surgery and re­hab. He was count­ed out and should have been on the side­lines at least two years ago. He left the US cir­cuit but is now the lead­ing play­er in the TTPFL and is back in the Se­nior Men's team for what may well be its most crit­i­cal year in World Cup qual­i­fy­ing his­to­ry since 2005.

The jour­ney of an ath­lete is nev­er easy, but the most in­spir­ing sto­ries are born from strug­gle. Every re­jec­tion, in­jury, and set­back is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to grow stronger and wis­er. You have the pow­er to rise above your cir­cum­stances, even when the road feels long and un­cer­tain.

Your sto­ry isn’t over. Keep show­ing up. Keep fight­ing. Great­ness doesn’t come to those who avoid strug­gle—it comes to those who em­brace it, learn from it, and refuse to give up. You are ca­pa­ble of more than you think. Dwight Yorke faced nu­mer­ous re­jec­tions in his pur­suit of in­ter­na­tion­al coach­ing jobs. The path may be dif­fi­cult, but the re­ward is worth it. We as of­fi­cials may well be telling our­selves this as well be­cause those of us in the are­na, es­pe­cial­ly with­in the twin-is­land, know very well what about chal­lenges and ob­sta­cles in our jour­ney with teams and ath­letes.

Ed­i­tor's Note

Shaun Fuentes is the head of TTFA Me­dia and mar­ket­ing. He was a FI­FA me­dia of­fi­cer at the 2010 FI­FA World Cup in South Africa and the 2013 FI­FA U-20 World Cup in Turkey. He has trav­elled to 88 coun­tries dur­ing his jour­ney in sport. The views ex­pressed are sole­ly his and not a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of any or­gan­i­sa­tion. shaunfuentes@ya­hoo.com