Criticism: Do You Make This Mistake, Too?…
[ Reading time ~ 3 minutes. ]
INTRODUCTION
The following inspirational words relate to criticism, but they also relate to feedback and opinion, to perspective and viewpoint too.
They relate to facts, too. Because facts never decide things, it’s the meaning we give to the facts that’s important – always.
The Real Problem With Feedback and Criticism
The problem with criticism – the real problem with it – is that it says so much more about the person giving it than receiving it.
The problem with getting feedback and advice is exactly the same.
The problem with listening to anyone, really – and automatically putting their viewpoint ahead of your own – is that you think they see things the same way as you do. And they don’t. They just don’t.
Another way of saying this, then, is…
- The people that complain are the people who complain
- The people that worry are the people who worry
- The people who make the best of things are the people who make the best of things.
No matter the situation.
That’s what people are looking to do, given half the chance.
To complain, to worry, or to make the best of things.
(Ever noticed? I know this might be ‘obvious’, but do you really understand what this means?)
What this means is that we all live in our own unique reality. There is no ‘real world’ that we all live in. Just 7 billion uniquely different worlds, and counting.
So something happens to us, or we watch something on the news, and we ALL give that happening our own unique meaning to it. We ALL then respond (in our unique, conditioned way) to the meaning we came up with rather than to what actually happened.
(Do you see that? Isn’t that something?)
This means that being made redundant could be the worst thing that ever happened to you, or the best. Same goes for getting married (or divorced), having children (or not having them), or even getting a terminal illness – seriously!
Something happens, and then we give it our meaning.
And ALL meanings are made up. Positive meanings, negative ones and even neutral meanings. All. Made up. By you. All based on your values, your beliefs, your preferences and the conditioning that’s shaped you caused by growing up as you.
And why is this important?
Well, it’s just another revelation that we live in an Inside-Out created world, I guess. That we really are both the source of and solution to every problem that comes our way. Just that, really…
CONCLUSION
This is further encouragement, if it were needed, to “learn from others, but teach yourself.” To notice what is being said, why it’s being said, and what it seems to mean to them and what it seems to mean to you.
This could also be further reason to STOP TAKING THINGS PERSONALLY. Or not. Hah!
(I go into much more detail about living in separately created realities in this post. And I explain how to listen to feedback (and criticisms) in this post.)
Did You Know?
I’m not sure that Anais Nin really wrote these words attributed to her. And if she did write them, an earlier author may well have inspired them. For me, it doesn’t matter who wrote them but that they were written.
Secondly, and If you like the quotes I’ve used here at SteveMNash.com, then you’ll find many of them in either my Daily Quotes book or my Positive Spiritual Quotes book.
My book-buying readers love ’em, don’t you know! 😉