Tuesday, October 02, 2007
How to Accept Criticism with Grace and Appreciation
zen habits: "Every day, I get emails and comments that are amazingly positive and encouraging, and in truth these messages are the very thing that sustains my blogging. However, I also get negative comments now and then: criticism of my writing, and not nice criticism either. How do you deal with criticism? I think the first reaction for most of us is to defend ourselves, or worse yet to lash back."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I think the idea of thanking the critic is a really good idea and probably a good way to subdue any tension that may have built up from the criticism. One thing I will do far too often is to immediately try to justify the thing being criticized to the critic and to myself. In some instances this is probably effective in terms of a method of clarification. However on the flip side this can just mask the real problem and opportunity to grow from the situation, hiding the problem from myself and the critic, ultimately just hurting myself in the end.
this is such a critical thing for all of us to understand because everything we say is constantly going to be on critique and i think the more we learn to handle the stress and subdue our immediate reactions the better. i think that that is one reason that critiques are widely successful because it puts us all in a vulnerable situation and allows fro evaluation and then for us to find the correct reaction and the correct way to channel emotions attached to the idea of criticism. in the end i think it will only make us stronger, it is just perplexing and hard to hear criticism on something you've completely invested in, its something we could all use improvement on, i know i can.
Criticism can be hard to deal with because there is so much variability. A critic can be entirely right or wrong, and it's often hard to tell because one's own personal prejudice can interfere.
Criticism can be tough to take if you're not ready for it. But it's true - you have to look at everything in the most positive light as possible. Even if you get some sort of criticism that infuriates you and no matter how hard you try you still see it as just negative, I'm sure if you look hard enough, there will be some truth in the criticism and you can learn from that. ALWAYS look for ways to improve yourself and what you do. Always take the good criticism you get straight to heart - try to incorporate it into what you do and into your life. You will be endlessly grateful that you did. If some criticism is tough to take and you can't readily apply it, just remember it, keep it in your head. It may come in handy some day, some day sooner than you'd think - I guarantee it.
It is definately a good idea to thank the critic for the critism. But what's also important for us is to determine whether the critism made sense, are we able to look at it from an angle we never seen before and learn something from it?
Thanking the critic is important of course, but I really enjoyed the part of this article that highlighted stopping your initial reaction. We so often follow our irrational first motives, and that is what leads to regret and need for apology. So step back, take a breather, and try floating for a while. It may sound crazy, but just coasting through life (not in the lazy sense) can do some good, as long as that isn't all you do. We are bred, at this point, to analyze everything to death, until we pick apart every negative aspect and self-deprecating fact. It isn't easy, but it certainly is helpful to be able to step outside yourself and see things from a different view. Practical, and rather enjoyable I must say.
Post a Comment