Have you ever done something and someone corrected you for that? How do you view criticisms? Do you accept it and ponder on it, so you’ll be better the next time? Or do you feel hurt when someone corrects you and take it against that person?
Constructive criticisms are meaningful advice that can help us to improve something, be it our performance, our quality of work or simply our attitude. All of us needs constructive criticisms at times. Because sometimes, we do not realize that something is wrong until someone points it out to us.
Here are sample constructive criticisms:
A teacher tells her student that the project he submitted seemed to be rushed and advised him to exert more effort in making his project next time since there was enough time given before the deadline. A student has two options as to how to react to that constructive criticism, either he rejects it thinking that the teacher is scolding him because she doesn’t like him. The student can also view the criticism positively and do better in his next activity or project.
An employee submitted a project proposal to her manager, but the manager declined it and told her that similar proposals was already submitted before and that she must think of a more creative proposal and also gave suggestions how to write a better one. The employee can either reject the suggestion and take it against her manager, she can even think that her efforts are just wasted and might no longer do better. Or she can listen attentively to what the manager said and apply the key points to her next proposal. Learning to accept constructive criticisms is an important skill that we need to learn.
All of us are not perfect, so we all make mistakes at times and fall short. And because of that, we need to receive constructive feedback from others. When we keep in mind and always remember that we are not perfect and mistakes are normal part of our lives, we become more receptive to the advice, correction and constructive feed backs from others.
If we accept constructive feed backs, it can help us to improve whatever we do.
Yes it is good if we accept constructive feed backs and criticisms, but it is a different story when criticisms are given at the wrong time and place, because it can be really discouraging.
What can help us to accept constructive feed backs and criticisms?
First, don't focus on who is giving the message or criticism but focus on the message he or she wants to convey. Sometimes it is even harder to accept criticism when the one giving it is younger than us, or we think we are more capable, more talented or more skilled than that person so he or she has no right to correct us. That is why sometimes we may also try to find fault with the person who criticizes us. Sometimes, even though it is difficult to accept feedback from someone we do not want to get feedback from, there are also facts and lessons that we can get from it, we just really need to analyze and think about it.
The second is to maintain a balanced view of ourselves. Just because we have received criticism does not mean we are a failure, no. Honestly, that's how I felt when I was young. I don’t like it when others correct me, I get hurt when others give me criticism. It makes me feel like I haven’t done anything right. But I realized that it would be better if others correct me because that means I have flaws and I can remove them if I accept the feedback of others.
@thepandagirl 🐼
