How to Handle Criticism?
Have You Trained Yourself How to Handle Criticism?
In our day-to-day life, each one of us encounters critical comments from our family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, or people in general for our physical looks, character, ability, dressing sense, social standing, and so on. These comments seem to radiate negativity and instill fear, self-doubt, and low self-esteem in us. Our ego gets badly hurt. After all, no one enjoys being criticized. We are naturally wired for self-defensiveness, we become angry, irritated, threatened, depressed, or abusive threatening our precious relationships.
Therefore, it is very essential to learn how to address and filter criticism to live a happier life. Dealing with criticism positively is an important life skill. Our professional and personal success depends on our strength to take criticism. We can handle criticism successfully by analyzing its intent, responding with patience, and acting positively on the feedback.
There are two types of criticism - constructive and destructive – If we are able to identify the difference between the two, we can deal with any criticism easily.
Constructive criticism, is easier to accept, even if it still hurts a little It is designed to point out our mistakes, but also with suggestions for improvement
Constructive criticism should be viewed as useful feedback that can help you improve yourself rather than put you down.
Destructive criticism It can be deliberately malicious, hurtful, and derogatory. Destructive criticism can, in some cases, lead to anger and/or aggression. It can hurt pride and have negative effects on your self-esteem and confidence. It is damaging to the relationship which we share with ourselves and others.
How to Handle Criticism
If we can deal with criticism, we can save many relations from getting broken and can come out as a stronger and successful person. Few tips are here to be taken care of.
-
Understand it is their Perspective
We should understand the fact that everyone’s perspective is based on their knowledge background, choices, and preferences. Everyone is free to think and react in their own way You also have full choice to receive or reject the criticism.
2. Assess the Intention
Check the intention of the critic with the tone and the relation you are having with the critic because it is not only the words but the feeling behind them that also matters. If the intention is good, then we can use it to our advantage. If you know a person who is critical of everything then no need to take their comments too seriously, as it is their character trait.
3. Remember Criticism doesn’t define you
Be kind to yourself whenever you receive destructive feedback. Think over it positively. Remember always that the criticism may define a small part of your life but not the Total you. The critic is not happy with only one small part of yours and not the whole of you. One bad trait doesn’t eliminate all the good in you.
4. Don’t let it seep into our hearts.
Criticism should go to mind and not deep into the heart. A judgemental comment from someone may manifest from a particular situation or action that doesn’t comply with their belief system. It can be a fleeting comment manifesting from a passing emotion. So don’t hold it for too long in your heart, let it go.
5. Detach the Tone and the Feedback
Understand that some people may have valuable critical suggestions, but their tone and style of speaking may seem harsh. For those reasons, it better to respond to the feedback and not their tone. Focus on the useful suggestions.
6. Try to understand the critic’s perspective
Criticism denotes how a person sees you at that point in time. Take a step back and try to see things from the other person’s point of view and make criticism a learning experience Thinking about your strengths and weaknesses could help you to approach criticism with an open mind to be able to understand the difference.
7. Respond than react
If you feel that you may lose self-control, or say or do something potentially damaging, walk away. Gather yourself first and then express your side of the story. It is always important to set your emotions aside and take a breath before responding. Reacting can cause permanent damage, responding allows healthy communication and a chance to look at the situation from an objective perspective. You need to tell the critique of how you see things differently when there is a better chance of being heard. Remember that even the most difficult things can be said with kindness.
8. Reduce your interactions with Toxic people
The world has different kinds of people, we should cut off interactions with people with a behavior pattern of weighing others down.
9. Show Gratitude to Those Who Offer Constructive Criticism
Thank every person who offers you meaningful feedback, for they want you to succeed. Although it may hurt to know what you did wrong, understand their motives, and thank them.
To conclude, we should value criticism. Unfortunately, we only value praise. When people speak kind words, we feel happy. When people criticize, we feel miserable. However, if we only received false flattery, how would we ever make progress? We should take criticism as an opportunity to promote self-growth. If we can learn the art to process feedback differently and learn from it, we’ll always bounce back as stronger, wiser, and more resilient human beings.
You can further refer to these articles-
You can further refer to these articles-