Criticism

“If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.”
Donald H. Rumsfeld

We all want to avoid criticism. Criticism hurts. In fact, criticism can even kill. We need everyone to approve of us. We want them to like what we are saying and what we are doing. Our ego thrives on that. Some people even get to the point where they will do whatever other people tell them to do, whether they want to or not, just to avoid their criticism. They lose their sense of the boundary between who they are and who those other people are. That’s a heavy price to pay.

The truth is that everyone has their own unique view of the world based on their own experiences. So everyone will have their own unique view of what you should be doing. That might depend on what they have learned about what is appropriate for people, or men, or women, or children etc to be doing in particular situations. It might also depend on what they want or need that they think they can get from you. Everyone has got their own opinion about what you should be doing or saying at any given time. But you can’t possibly be everything that everyone wants.

This means that whatever you are doing is going to be criticized by someone. The only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing. And if you do nothing, you don’t have much of a life. The truth is that the more you grow, the closer you get to reaching your potential, the more success you have, the more you will be criticised. If you are successful, you will be criticized simply for being better or doing something better than the other person. If you fail, you will be criticized for not doing a good enough job at something. Learn to embrace criticism. What it really means is that you are moving forward and accomplishing things.