Feedback Thoughts

For this assignment, I read the articles Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head and The Psychology of Comparison and How to Stop. I enjoyed reading both articles a lot. As I'm sure a lot of us do, I'm usually pretty hard on myself when I'm working on something. I liked what Nawaz wrote in the first article about having one positive voice for every 5 negative voices. I realized that the positive feedback means just as much as the negative. I definitely find myself passing over the good words and immediately hooking on to what I need to fix. I liked her example of how most people react when they're complimented. We tend to minimize it, but when we get a negative comment, we are so curious to find out exactly what was disliked and figure out a way to fix it. Nawaz was saying we should also try to do that with the positive instead of brushing those words off. It's also hard to give feedback to others sometimes. I always look for the good, but am too scared to say anything critical. I know that I have to try to help others succeed and that means offering them advice or correcting something. The second article tackled another subject: comparison. It's so easy for people, myself included, to see someone else's success or work and compare it to yours. We measure our value based on other people's successes, which isn't good. It's hard not to, especially when it's something you're struggling with. I always do this with my cousins. They all know exactly what they want to do, and they are well on their way to accomplishing their goals, so often, I feel like I'm behind or that I'm not as good as they are. However, I have to remember that every single person on this earth has different strengths and weaknesses, so I can't use them as my ruler for success

Words to live by. Image: Flickr