The Journal Of Universal Rejection

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Seth Godin recently wrote about The Journal of Universal Rejection. 

It’s a “journal” that allows you to submit any form of content (“…any and all types of manuscript: poetry, prose, visual art, and research articles”) which it then, without question (and, often, without any review) reject. 

Yes, it’s absurd and, if you read through the instructions on the site, clearly written tongue-in-cheek. 

But as Godin points out, perhaps that’s the point. Perhaps that idea serves a real purpose. 

We worry so much about work we want to do and hesitate based on preconceived notions of how it will be received. We worry if it’ll be good enough, whether people will like it, whether even doing it is worth our time. 

But what if we could free ourselves from those concerns? What if we stopped worrying about what could possibly happen - and just do the work?

Then we’d be free to really think about the content itself, to try new and different ideas, to take some real risks. 

Nine times out of 10, I suspect we’d produce something we’d be really proud of. 

Isn’t that all that matters?