“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
* * *
Yesterday, during a meeting, I got criticized – unfairly, I thought. My heart sunk and stayed sunk the whole rest of the day. But yesterday I also received several comments and messages from people who think I’m doing a great job at work. Interestingly, these kudos lifted my heart only for a moment – then I remembered the comment I didn’t like, and my heart sank again.
I bet most of the people in this group are hyper-sensitive to criticism, be it right or wrong. And I bet most of us are quick to dismiss compliments from people. We seem to want to believe the worst about ourselves and dismiss the best. Why?
Perhaps we should carry a small notebook and jot down the compliments we receive and compare them to the criticisms. And the compliments can be as simple as a smile from someone (just as we would count a frown as a criticism.) Let’s see if we’re really as bad as we tell ourselves we are. My guess? We’re not.
No comments:
Post a Comment