How Accepting Criticism Can Help Improve Your Life

LifeStyleOctober 26, 2018

No matter what you do, you are bound to be criticized in one way or another. Seeing that humans are sociable by nature, it’s only natural that they always have something to say to one another. However, sometimes, other people’s opinions, insights, and criticism are not positive. You must have received negative criticism in school, work and life in general.

The moment you receive criticisms, the first reaction is to be defensive about it, and that’s okay. It is humans normal response whenever someone belittles them intentionally or otherwise. You feel as if someone’s questioning your abilities, which hurts your personal ego. Sometimes, you just don’t care and tend to ignore these naysayers. After all, you cannot please everybody.

While that is one great approach towards criticism, it is sometimes good to be criticized. One common misconception people have is that criticism is toxic. Let us debunk this myth.

Here are the reasons why accepting a criticism can help you improve yourself:

“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.” – Winston Churchill

Criticism guides you to the next level

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Just think about this. If you haven’t received any criticism in your life, then there’s no way to improve yourself. You’ll just keep on doing the things you normally do. After all, if no one bothered to criticize you, how would you have known that there is something wrong with what you’re doing?

Criticism is essential. It is not there to drag you down but to help you soar high. The best example for this is in your workspace. If you’re a newbie and you are still figuring how things work, the chances are that your first output will be flawed. Your supervisor will point out at your mistakes and even show you how to do it properly. The criticism you receive from this helps you to improve and better your output. That way, the next time you do the tasks assigned to you, you will do them minus mistakes. There will come a time and you will you became an expert in your field.

Criticism Will Help You Connect With Others Deeper

One of the main reasons why you receive criticism is because you only know one side of the story. You need to remember that everyone is unique. We all have different backgrounds and cultures, and our minds work differently. Criticisms will help you bridge that gap and connect with other people. It gives you an insight of what others think and lets you know their story. This, in turn, can help you improve your craft.

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For example, you may be writing a fiction crime novel that is set in America, and you are living in Asia. While research can help you gain information about the technicality so you can write your novel as accurate as you can, nothing still beats to the person who has had first-hand experience with it. A police officer living in America could give you a reliable information of things such as the Seasons there, the state, geographical location, and such things. He or she can also give you some basic background about how the American police system works.

That way, criticism can help you improve the novel craft you’re working on and give you a clearer understanding of the Western culture. You learn about the other side of the world that you didn’t know. Furthermore, you’ll no longer be ignorant. You’ll be able to respect and understand other cultures.