Someone wrote to me on Twitter about how he strongly disliked a journalist whose article I’d just shared.
The journalist was “wack,” he said, mainly due to the fact that, as I later uncovered, the journalist routinely criticized prominent Black athletes.
I engaged this Tweeter to find out what exactly his gripe was, and found little substance to his argument. His point boiled down to the fact that he didn’t want to see any Black athletes criticized in any way. Not because he had any reason for this feeling — he didn’t like seeing criticism, period.
Fine. He can have that opinion if he wishes. Problem is, bristling against any and all criticism is not a path to growth or success.
Coming from the sports world, criticism is baked into the landscape. Trainers, coaches, parents and fans provide plenty of it, much of which you can’t even respond to. And if you couldn’t or didn’t develop the mental toughness to look deep into the criticism to find the morsels of truth within, you wouldn’t last long.
Any athlete who took every criticism personally wouldn’t even make it through a season, let alone a career. Since we are all works in progress and less-than-perfect, a person (non-athlete) who can’t handle being criticized — even by someone who is plenty qualified to do so and has your best interests at heart — won’t make it far in life.
The thing I really want you to take from this is you shouldn’t be looking to avoid criticism. It’s actually one of the best tools you’ll need for growth.
What this means to you: stop taking everything so personal. When you learn to see the truth within a critique, you can use it to make yourself better in ways that most people miss.
Claim your FREE copy of The Mirror Of Motivation so you can master who you’re being from the inside-out — which means what you DO will immediately produce different results.
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