Feedback Thoughts

Feedback can often be a critical tool in progressing and growing as an individual. If there is no feedback, then there is often a lack of an outside perspective which is helpful in knowing what cannot be seen normally. In Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head, feedback is addressed as a useful way to learn how to be a better leader. This article expanded on how many people most often only address negative feedback as they see this part as the most important. I believe people do this because they think the positive aspects of their behavior that was mentioned is something they have already mastered and, therefore, do not have to work on in the future. What this leads to is only having the negative parts to focus their attention on for improvement. While this can be meaningful, I think the article brought up a valid point that people should not just brush aside the positive comments. There are pros and cons to essentially everything in life. Focusing on the positive every once in a while can become a refreshing exercise to those that constantly feel overwhelmed with the negative parts of life.

Overcoming the mind is a challenging task for those that have not already achieved it. Those who still experience struggles and new difficulties in life each day are especially prone to doubt themselves when attempting to do something new. In Seven Ways to Crush Self-Doubt in Creative Work, the author details ways to try and circumvent the self-doubt many people may feel. The author brings up how people should abandon perfectionism which can be useful because trying to be perfect can negatively affect your performance and mood. Trying to be perfect is a nearly impossible standard and those who try to meet it can often find themselves unhappy with their life situations or will refrain from attempting new skills to avoid being bad at something. This happens to me in my own life, and I hope to one day get past the perfectionism I feel is necessary to achieve everything I want to in life. Once I fully believe that making mistakes is an acceptable part of the process of learning, and not something to be punished for, I believe I will be more willing to learn about subjects that do not initially capture my interest.

In general, I have learned from constructive criticism the most when their is a clear list of what I did wrong. I try my best to do what is right, so when I have a list of skills to work on, I have a focused way to approach what I need to improve first. My most feedback negative experience happened when I was not asking for feedback, and I was bombarded with numerous negative things with no clear advice on how to fix what was wrong. This was not helpful for me as it destroyed my motivation to want to fix anything since nothing positive was listed. Moving forward, I want to incorporate more positive feedback when evaluating myself and others. I believe this will help the learning process be less discouraging.

Image Information: Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down: Pixabay