4 Tips on How to Handle Rejection

When you're online dating, rejection is something that comes with the territory. It happens to everyone, so you shouldn't feel singled out when it happens to you.

Unfortunately, rejection is also something that can embitter a dater, especially if there's no real reason matches are turning down emails or requests to meet in person. The experience of potential love interests saying "no thanks" or not responding at all to overtures could make anyone feel a little negative about the whole online dating process and drop out altogether.

While most of the time there is no single reason for rejection, it can still be hurtful enough to cause you to question yourself. After all, you felt attracted to someone. But then she disappeared or stopped emailing you, out of the blue. Or maybe she told you she wasn't interested when you didn't expect it.

Before you start to feel down, follow these tips to get you past the rejection and back into dating:

Don't overanalyze. Most online daters move from one person to the next very quickly, so it's pointless to analyze everything you did or said to try and figure out why she didn't choose you. Most also date multiple matches at a time. Likely she was dating other people and felt more connected or attracted to someone else. That doesn't mean you did anything wrong.

Mix it up. If you find that you are dating the same type of women and it's not working out, then try something new. Maybe you are being too restrictive with filters, ruling out anyone five years older or more than ten miles away from you. Or maybe you only want to date waitresses or flight attendants. Either way, you're severely limiting your options. Expand a little and see if you don't get more dates and less rejection.

Don't let it derail you. Dating success is directly affected by attitude. Are you attracted to someone who complains about past dates and relationships, or who stereotypes all men or all women? Not likely. So try not to get bogged down by the whole process and make negative associations. People come and go very quickly online, so it's important to move forward.

Engage with more people. If you send out only 10 emails to potential dates and wait to hear back, then how are you going to get anywhere? Online dating is a numbers game, and most people are cruising the new faces they see online. Send out 30 or 40 emails instead. Keep checking your account and reaching out to more people every day, and see if your chances don't improve.