THERE ARE CRITICS. Outside and Inside. What do you do with them? We are people with feelings that need care, and if you’re offering criticism, make the generous choice to understand what effect criticism will have on someone.

– One kind of critic can be mean and has ill will for you. They are cold and superior. They want you to feel you are nothing, not a success until they give you a splash of approval, and then you should fall on your knees and be grateful.

Never allow yourself to be insulted and controlled by a heartless critic. Never seek acceptance or be a doormat and sell yourself out to an ego on a deliberate, unkind, and inhumane rampage.

– The second kind of critic makes you feel respected, and you thrive because the words are compassionate and fair. They treat you like the PRO you are. They see your value and call to the best thing in you even when the criticism is intense and challenging.

You hear and feel what is good and where you can improve. The critic believes in you and your abilities. They want you to succeed in such a vast way that you’re empowered to improve and come through. You never feel beaten down. Confidence grows. Goodwill criticism gets positive results and makes you feel proud and grateful.

– The third critic is the heckler in your head. What Steven Pressfield brilliantly defines as “resistance,” who never misses a chance to tell you – “You are not as good as you think you are. You’re a fake that people tolerate.”

I never underestimate my heckler. I study him. He’s like Iago in Othello – Mephistopheles in Dr. Faustus – Inspector Javert in Les Miserable. Characters who are clever, cunning, frightening, and evil because they play on weaknesses, jealousy, and insecurity. They chase you down, never letting you feel free and at peace.

The best advice I know, the kindest words I have ever heard about dealing with critics, and I choose to live by, are these:

“The professional blows critics off. He doesn’t even hear them. Critics, he reminds himself, are the unwitting mouthpieces of Resistance and as such can be truly cunning and pernicious. They can articulate in their reviews the same toxic venom that Resistance itself concocts inside our heads. That is their real evil. Not that we believe them, but that we believe the Resistance in our own minds, for which critics serve as unconscious spokespersons.” – Steven Pressfield – The War of Art.

Whenever asking for criticism or hearing unasked for criticism, make sure it comes from people you trust and respect.

Thanks – Michael (he, him)

Please share this Daily with your tribes.
This also matters – Your Choice for Steady Goodwill.

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