Do you feel always insulted? Do you feel that everyone is
against you even you do what is right? Then, you are facing one phase of
success-criticism.
According to Mr. Webster (from my cellphone), criticism is
an act of judgment on one’s meritor fault-finding.Everyone has an opinion,
everyone’s willing to tell you what you’re doing wrong, everyone’s ready to
tell you how to lead your life. To be completely honest, most of us don’t want
to hear it. We try to ignore it as possible and we don’t want to be affected by
it. But there will be a point that we can’t handle it anymore and we will just
feel like an exploding bomb. Mishandling criticism might lead to the fall of
your career and everything that you value. To cope up with this, I will suggest
effective ways to deal with it.
- Keep your emotions out of it. It’s easier said than done, but responding defensively or getting emotional during a critical discussion just draws it out longer. If you’re not defensive of your behavior (whether you’re right or wrong), most critics will take that as a sign that you’re at least considering their comments — making them at least a little happier about the situation. If you can manage this sort of approach, you’ll at least get out of the discussion that much faster.
- Don’t Respond Immediately. It is best to wait a little before responding. If we respond with feelings of anger or injured pride we will soon regret it. If we wait patiently it can enable us to reflect in a calmer way.
- Learn from it. Was the opinion genuine and useful? If it is true, you can try to learn from it. I don’t choose whether to use criticism based on how harsh it was. The most negative feedback can often open you up to complete blind spots.
- Ignore False Criticism.Constructive criticism is one thing, but some people spend most of their day making harsh evaluations that aren’t exactly helpful to the recipient. It’s a fact of life, and the only way to deal with such people is generally to ignore them or deal with them. According to Aristotle, “Criticism is something you can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”
- Understand your critics. According to the book DUH by Francis Kong, when criticism begins to hurt you, simply remember the mango tree-nobody throws stones at a fruitless tree. Jealousy will breed criticism. If what you do before men is right before men and God, then do it with all of your might and don’t let the suckers get to you.
- Ask for some advice. Your spiritual leaders and parents are the best advisers we’ve got.
