How do you handle criticism? Most people don’t feel very comfortable with them, and that’s pretty normal. Sometimes criticism is destructive and, in other cases, manipulative.
Differentiating a constructive critique from a critique you intend to manipulate or hurt can be a rather difficult task, just thinking about the critical word we already feel a kind of inner rejection.
That is why today we will learn to confront critics, especially manipulators, who must not let them affect us.
Why are the critics born? This is something that, if we stop thinking, we will get few or no answer The origin of the criticisms that make us or that we make to ourselves has 3 reasons:
These are the 3 most common reasons, but what’s the matter, why don’t they work the way they should and end up being something much more negative for the person receiving the review?
The truth is that we make many mistakes when we formulate our reviews or when people make their own. To begin with, sometimes we do not choose the right time or our criticism is forced, abnormally, something that is usually accompanied by unconscious aggression.
In addition, sometimes we usually give unnecessary advice, our publications do not have the necessary strength, so it was better not to say it or make comparisons. All of this has a negative effect on the person receiving criticism, which can significantly damage the relationship and cause self-esteem and confidence issues in the object of criticism.
We all know what a fog is, which seems to gobble everything around it, absorb and make everything go away immutably. The fog is indestructible and only disappears when you want.
That’s how we should be. We must be a fog in the face of all the manipulative criticisms that seek to hurt and destroy us, people who make such criticisms have serious problems of self-esteem that they want to disguise by making manipulative criticisms aimed at others.
But if you use the fog technique, people will criticize you for not changing your condition and in the end, the other person will get bored, that’s the goal: to make the other person surrender.
Of course, we cannot counterattack, because the result will be deastrous. We can’t get to the level of the person because it will only encourage more criticism, it will weaken us!Just be a fog, don’t change in the face of criticism. It’s normal to be affected, but be strong to at least disguise it. You’ll see that sooner or later the other person will get tired. Critics will eventually be stunned.
If you’ve ever been in a situation like this, you should know that even if the other person wants to make you feel inferior, they’re the ones that are really inferior to you. This lack of self-confidence is what makes a person act that way. It’s contradictory, but it’s real. People who are full of negativity try, one way or another, to harm others to feel good about themselves.
You don’t deserve to be subjected to manipulative criticism, and if you now realize you’re in the role of manipulative critic, correct it. Your self-esteem and confidence issues shouldn’t affect your relationships, others aren’t to blame. Any manipulative critique will only take effect if you let it affect you. So be a fog; you’ll see malicious criticism disappear from your life.
Images courtesy of Jim Konn Devianart, Art Graphc 3k, Emily Thornsed