“Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing” –Aristotle
Criticism is truly hard to take no matter how it is given. There are however different types of criticism, constructive criticism that is meant to help you do you job better usually administered by someone who would like to see you succeed in your work, and criticism given by a born critic. Some people are plagued with a negative mindset and pretty much anything and everything will fail on the scale of their opinion. They tend to thrive on negative thoughts, and if there is nothing bad going on, they are sure to invent it!
It is easy to grow defensive of our own work, after all you have spent a good amount of your personal blood, sweat and tears laboring away to
The good news is, being criticized means that you are doing something! Only those who do not do anything, never try anything, are too afraid to make any move are the only ones that never receive any criticism! So if you are being criticized, this could be a wonderful compliment, you are going somewhere. Criticizing can be due to many things, perhaps other are jealous of you and what you are able to accomplish, so in order to elevate themselves they will attempt to put you down. They might just be chronic criticizers who have little or nothing else to do and therefore they have taken on this activity as their “profession”. And yes there is the true friend who really would like to see you succeed and so he offers you a sincere criticism in order to help you to perfect what you are doing.
Leaders are usually subjected to a lot of criticism. They are often in their position because of the fact that they are good leaders, but good or bad is as they may be, because they are going places and doing things, they are the target of a lot of criticism! You cannot desire leadership if you are afraid of being criticized, spoken bad about or eventually even hated by others. This unfortunately comes with the job of a leader. But a good leader will be open to this fact, be able to wade through the criticism, pick out what might be relevant and learn from it without being offended. If you are affected by criticism, do not seek out a leadership position!
I really do not look forward to election time, as despite the fact that debate is necessary in order to arrive to the solution in any matter, during the campaign stage there is so much senseless mudslinging on both sides of the aisle. What those who tend to sling mud don’t take into consideration is:”he who throws dirt loses ground!” Most of the criticism is not constructive, if it were it would not be accentuate the obvious problem but rather clearly offering a solution.
So if you are a victim of criticism, cheer up, you may be doing something. Just don’t let it get you down and stop moving at all! Look at the criticism and try to evaluate whether it holds any possible point in truth and make any modifications that you deem necessary. We are all subject to the gossip of others, unfortunately that comes with life, just don’t let it be what influences your every decision!
How do you take criticism? Do you use it to make you better or allow it to use you to weaken you?
