The Overly Positive

We all know that criticism has two sides to it. On the one side, you have positive feedback on your work; what people like about it, how your work inspires them. Then on the other side, you have constructive criticism; what your work is missing, any flaws or aspects you may have missed. Both sides are necessary if you want to develop in your field, but for some people, they’d rather not hear anything bad about their work. They just want to hear the positive.

Okay, so let’s say that somehow you have been able to surround yourself with people who never say anything negative about your work; you live in a very tiny, happy bubble. Let’s say all you every allowed yourself to hear is, “Wow, that is amazing. You are so talented. Bravo!” You would certainly be on Cloud Nine, that’s for sure. And for a while, your confidence would be through the roof.

But would it stay that way for long? Wouldn’t you, at some point, start to wonder what was true, what was real and what wasn’t? We all know that no one is perfect. We all know that phrase, “We’re only human.” So how could it be that you, without fail, produce perfection every time?

Don’t you think that would eventually begin to wear on your mind? And if it didn’t, soon enough your confidence would become so great that you would probably decide to venture out of your little bubble and show your work off to the world. What would happen then? You would probably be crushed. Even if you did produce amazing work, when you bring it to the public, there are too many opinions and backgrounds for you to get 100% positive feedback; it’s just not possible.

So allowing ourselves to take both the positive feedback with the constructive criticism really gives us the opportunity to, not only develop in our field of expertise, but it also allows us to develop as individuals.
If you believe in your work and what you do, if you are passionate about it, then what constructive criticism does is open up your mind to the bigger picture.

There are billions of people in this world all with unique experiences and opinions that can add so much dimension to the work that you produce. But you have to be open to it. Step out of your bubble and open your mind to endless feedback. If you could hear the opinions of everyone in the world, just think how much content you’d have to feed off of for your work!