Paul Thomas Anderson stated that, “How do I respond to criticism? Critically. I listen to all criticism critically.”
Criticism is something we all face, it’s like a part of the journey where people give us feedback, both positive and negative (mostly), whether we like it or not.
The people we know, such as friends, family, colleagues, or people we don’t even know, like strangers. But how we handle criticism can significantly impact our personal growth and relationships.
In this blog post, I’ll be exploring 8 important ways to deal with negative feedback and criticism.
Let’s dive in.
8 Ways to Deal with Criticism and Negativity
1. Listen actively
Listening carefully to criticisms is really important when you get feedback, whether it’s positive or negative. It helps you grow personally and professionally.
When you are listening well, you show respect to the person giving feedback. This builds better communication and trust. It could be anyone, your friend, relative or mentor.
Listening attentively gives you a chance of learning and getting better. But being honest, there’s no need to listen to bad, biased or unnecessary criticism as their only purpose is to disturb our emotional well-being.
2. Don’t take it personally
Taking negative criticism personally in not a good idea. It deeply affects our emotional well-being and confidence. When we do not take criticism personally, we are better able to maintain our personal and emotional growth.
By accepting those as an opportunity for growth rather than a personal attack, we can approach challenges with a sense of improvement. This will help us to bounce back from setbacks, learn from our mistakes, and continuously grow.
For example, you are a painter working on a project for an art house. You’ve put a lot of effort into making ideas, then sketching and colouring, but when you present it to the head of the department, they express some concerns and feedback about the painting and want to add or change something in that.
Instead of feeling hurt by this feedback, you choose not to take it personally, actively listen to their concerns, and make changes according to his suggestions.
By not taking the criticism personally, you focus on the purpose of the feedback. As a result, you’ve improved the relation with the person and also helped improving your skill.
3. Consider the source
Dealing with criticism becomes more manageable when we understand its origins, where it’s coming from. By knowing the source of criticism and negative feedback helps us assess its credibility.
If you are getting criticism from knowledgeable and trusted source in relevant area, it often holds more value. For example, constructive criticism from your mentor can provide important insights for improvement.
On the other hand, criticism from someone lacking expertise who might have some unusual intention or jealousy, often causes harm rather than helping and serves no productive purpose.
Handling those by knowing its source and using it wisely, helps us to maintain our progress and relationships simultaneously. It’s about learning and growing from feedback, while also recognizing when criticism isn’t helpful or fair.
4. Avoid immediate reactions
When you are facing criticism or negative feedback, try to avoid immediate reactions. It is an effective way to deal with it.
Instead of immediately feeling hurt, we can step back and evaluate the feedback with a more calm and clearer mind.
Taking a moment before responding will help to focus on the purpose of the criticism rather than engaging in emotional reaction.
5. Focus on improvement
Approaching criticism with a focus on improvement is a way of coping with negative feedback. It is about using it as an opportunity to grow. You can carefully review the feedback and look at the points where are the improvements needed.
By accepting constructive criticism which has good intent, we can transform initial setbacks into personal growth. Ultimately, it will help us to be more mature to handle criticism.
6. Don’t dwell on it much
Handling criticism effectively is really important for getting better in life. One effective approach is to not dwell on it excessively. This skill will help you in managing criticism and negative feedback and to live a peaceful life.
When someone criticises you, it’s good to listen to what they say and try to understand it, if you feel it doesn’t have any bad intent. Dwelling on criticism can lead you towards many negative consequences such as low self-confidence, increased stress, and reduced motivation.
It disturbs our productivity and creativity also. So, it’s better not to overthink about them.
7. Practice self-compassion
Self-compassion is one of the most important things while receiving and responding to criticism. You know, if someone criticizes us, we, ourselves are the first ones who doubts and become harsh.
When we are facing criticism, whether in personal or professional space, it’s essential to be more compassionate, both towards ourselves and the person giving the feedback.
We also keep in mind the same thing when we are giving feedback to someone else. Sometimes criticisms are usually meant for helping, motivating us to get better, not to make us feel bad.
Treat yourself with kindness and understanding. It’ll be easier to handle them.
8. Discuss with a trusted person
If you are facing bad criticism and negativity too much that it has become tough to handle only by yourself, you should discuss with someone you trust very much, who knows about your attitude, behaviour, your ability to deal with problems.
They can help you in a customized and preferable way. It could be anyone, your parent, sibling, friend or any family member. It will be easier for you to deal with them if you take help from someone.
Because discussing helps to open many directions to look at.
Conclusion
As we have come to an end of this blog, I hope you got some ways to handle criticism and negative feedback. Constructive criticism is always good for our personal and professional growth.
But in today’s digital time, we started getting unnecessary bad criticism and feedback from the people we don’t even know. It leaves a long-term effect on our mental well-being. By not taking them personally to avoid immediate reaction, we can deal with them.
As Mandy Hale said, “The less you respond to rude, critical, argumentative people, the more peaceful your life will become.” If I ask you, has there been a time when criticism from others caused you to doubt yourself, and how did you overcome that doubt? Let me know in the comments.
Take care.
Make the most of your day.
Until we meet again.