My Riffs

Instead of criticizing, offer suggestions for improvement. Criticism doesn’t help. But improvements do. If you suggest an improvement you give space for a review and consideration to improve. But a criticism is simply a shot that causes damage. 

You will be criticized no matter what. You may as well do good, big things that are worth it.

Why do we so often feel the need to let everyone know our criticisms? Most of the times are critiques aren't even given to the right set of ears. And they also aren't given in the right attitude. Holding our criticisms inside is usually the right thing to do.

I think the best advice there is about critics is to ignore them. It's usually those on the sidelines who criticize. If it's not those on the sidelines, it's those who misunderstand. The best thing you can do to a critic is be kind and love them :) 

It's an easy trap to fall into... letting other peoples opinions of us dictate how we live.  Questions that can come to mind are: What will this person say about me? But they said I would fail, can I succeed? I'm afraid I will be critiqued from them? But I failed before, what will they say now? When we live life based on fear of what people think and say, we immediately put ourselves in a sort of handcuffs. This doesn't mean we should show no regard for people. But it means we need to live free of critical people.  Let your life be governed by hope not critical words.

The critic (not the critical) is an important role. The critic actually opens themself up for criticism. I’m not talking the negative person who only sees the bad. I’m talking about the critic who wants to make things better and who uses their voice to do so. That person doesn’t have an easy job. But it’s important. Things don’t improve if there is no criticism. When we make the critic the villain, we lose something valuable. This should be the role the media plays in the world today. It’s turned into political activism, but in theory the media should play an important role in making things better. The critic is valuable. As long as they’re not a critical person and only point out the bad with no solutions or positivity.

Having kids makes you very aware of the different stages of life. At younger ages, just a few months difference puts a child in a very different stage of life. What we may tend to forget as adults is that everyone is still at different stages in life. It should make us much slower to judge if we just realize that the other person is at an entirely different stage of life than us.

There is a difference between criticism and constructive criticism. Criticism generally is offered up with destructive intentions. Constructive criticism is generally offered up with constructive intentions. Most people dislike criticism. So we tend to put all feedback into the criticism pile. But that should be done very carefully. A lot of what we would disregard as criticism has some value. Some of that feedback should be put into the constructive criticism pile. If we throw everything into the criticism pile and disregard it, we rob ourselves of many clues and hints that could be making us and things better. I’ve learned that even some of the more distasteful criticism often has a measure of validity to it.  So even in what feels like vile criticism, there is something I can gain from it.