When Rejection is Proection

The Hidden Energy of Grant Decisions

Few emails sting quite like the one that begins, “We regret to inform you…”

You put your heart into the application. You made every word count. The budget lined up. The impact was clear. By all measures, it was a strong submission. And yet, the outcome is no.

The first wave is disappointment. The second is disbelief. And if you’ve been through this more than once, it’s easy to slip into the spiral: maybe I’m not cut out for this. Maybe my idea isn’t good enough. Maybe I’m not good enough.

But what if the rejection is not actually about you at all? What if, in a way that’s hard to see in the moment, a “no” is a kind of protection?

Funding Isn’t Linear

I often picture the grant landscape as a kind of holodeck - a shifting, simulated reality where applicants, funders, and collective forces collide.

You step in thinking it’s a simple game of merit and alignment. But beneath the surface are unseen currents shaping the outcome.

Sometimes the funding you think you want would actually tether you to the wrong path. It could bind you to deliverables that dim your vision, or to partnerships that drain your energy. It could tie your story so tightly to a funder’s priorities that you lose sight of your own.

In those cases, the holodeck closes the door - not to punish you, but to reroute you. A rejection becomes the quiet nudge that says: not here, not this way.

The Tide Always Shifts

Each grant round isn’t isolated. It sits within a collective current - the mood of the times.

When energy is scarce, contracting, cautious, even the strongest ideas can be pushed aside. Funders may cling to the safe and familiar, rewarding projects that look predictable rather than visionary.

But when the current shifts into expansion - into openness, vision, boldness - entirely new projects can break through. It’s not that they are “better,” it’s that the tide is flowing differently, and they catch the wave.

This is why rejections often say more about the climate than about the application itself. A brilliant project can be turned away one year and embraced wholeheartedly the next.

It’s Not Always About You

Assessment processes are shaped by more than scorecards. Biases, politics, risk-aversion, timing - they all play a role. A high-quality application can fall victim to forces that have nothing to do with its merit.

From the outside, this can feel wildly unfair. But through another lens, it can also be seen as a form of intelligence in the field itself: a way of saying, the timing isn’t right, the path isn’t clear - wait, redirect, try again.

What To Do Instead

The challenge is what you do with yourself in the space after rejection. It’s tempting to collapse into exhaustion or push straight into the next application without pause. Both approaches miss the opportunity to realign.

Here are three practices to help reground and re-energise:

1. Reground in your vision.
   Step back from the application and remember why you are doing this work in the first place. Write your vision in a journal - not as a funding case, but as a love letter to the future you are creating. Let that remind you that the mission exists independent of this one grant.

2. Clear the energetic residue.
   Rejection leaves a residue of disappointment in the body. Move it through. Go for a walk, dance, do yoga, shake it out - something that physically shifts the “no” out of your system so it doesn’t calcify into self-doubt.

3. Reframe the story.
   Instead of telling yourself, I failed, try on the frame of protection. Say: This door closed because it was the wrong corridor. The right one is waiting, and this no freed me to see it. The language you use with yourself matters more than you realise.

The Invitation of Rejection

When the email lands, it’s natural to feel the sting. But rejection doesn’t mean your idea is flawed, or that you don’t belong. More often, it means the holodeck is rearranging the set.

It might be protecting you from misaligned deliverables.
It might be redirecting you toward a partner who truly gets your work.
It might be asking you to pause until the collective current shifts, so your idea can ride the wave instead of fighting against it.

Rejection is rarely the verdict it feels like. More often, it is an invitation: to reground in your vision, to clear your energy, and to trust that your path is unfolding in ways you can’t yet see.

Because sometimes the “no” isn’t an ending at all - it’s the holodeck nudging you gently toward the door that was made for you all along.

Final Thought

Rejection will always sting - that’s the human part of this journey. But it doesn’t have to mean failure. Sometimes the “no” is protection. Sometimes it’s redirection. And sometimes it’s simply the collective tide moving in another direction.

Your job is not to take it as a verdict on your worth, but to trust that the holodeck is rearranging itself in ways you may not yet see. Keep your vision clear, your energy moving, and your faith intact.

The right door will open - and when it does, you’ll know it was always yours.

Note on the Holodeck

The Holodeck is a concept from the science fiction series Star Trek. It is a simulated reality environment where participants step into immersive, lifelike programs that feel completely real. In this article, the holodeck is used as a metaphor for the energetic “field” of funding — a space where unseen forces, timelines, and collective moods shape outcomes beyond what’s visible on the surface.

Author Note

Lisa Erhart is the founder of Funding4Growth, where she helps women and diverse founders secure funding while keeping humanity at the centre. She believes strategy and soul are not opposites, but partners in building the future.