Take Criticism Seriously

My usual reaction to criticism was “how the fuck could he ask me to improve on this part, I know better”. My ego use to rule over my head and the response was usually accompanied by reverse criticism, sarcasm or straight out insult.

It took me a while to be aware of my feelings and reactions to certain things, and meditation helped me a lot to become aware of all the things around me. Now I split criticism into two categories, Senseless criticism and constructive criticism. I like the second one and I don’t care for the first.

Usually when someone criticize your work or you, It usually hurts your ego because they’re challenging your ethics and values, something that defines you and construct you as a person. If someone criticize your most favorite movie, right away you take it personally as if its your child they’re talking about. Because that movie has a certain value in your life and the person is claiming that its shit. That is senseless criticism.

We also tend to picture ourselves in a certain way, articulate ourselves in a certain way and behave in a certain way which is also represented in our work. When someone points on something that you can improve on or something you’re wrong at, that’s constructive criticism and it hurts equally, but you need to take it seriously.

Next time, when someone criticize you, just take a deep breath and ask yourself, is this criticism constructive or senseless? and it needs experience and wisdom to differentiate one from another. But once you figure out, you can make a decision to accept it, act on it and improve yourself or just listen to the person and then disposing the opinion in the trash, in case of senseless criticism.

Take criticism seriously, but not personally.

Artwork: https://dribbble.com/shots/4172787-Angry-Goose