This article was contributed by Jessica Barden.

To deal with criticism with an optimistic approach is an essential life skill. In life, you have to face criticism either in your professional life or elsewhere. Your response actually counts a lot towards criticism.

Whenever criticized, you will either take it positively and enhance yourself or take it negatively and lower your motivation level, self-esteem and ultimately it causes stress and anger in you.

Dealing with criticism positively requires a few skills of good self-esteem and some skills of boldness. You cannot control what other people say to you but you can obviously control how you take it, react to it and learn from it, and also when to let go of it and move ahead.

It is usual to react negatively when confronted, challenged and criticized by another person. While facing criticism, think about how pessimistic reactions make you look and how bad or good they make you feel. The way in which you choose to deal with criticism is totally up to you.

Criticism has an unforeseen effect in different aspects of your life; hence it is advisable to recognize the ways in which you can take advantage of criticism to become a much stronger person.

Here are top 5 ways in which you can deal with creative criticism:

1. Be eager to deal with critical people

The first thing you need to do when dealing with creative criticism is that you should be willing to deal with it and show up. These are the kind of people who are critical by nature and never realize that they are hurting the feelings of others by criticizing. If you face someone who is very critical about everything, then try to simply ignore their comments.

You should be ready to face it that everybody is not going to like everything that you do. It doesn’t at all mean that your work is bad; it simply means that some people are going to praise your work and some will dislike it. You can’t please everyone and you shouldn’t plan to.

2. Listen to critics

Listening to what critical people like to say to you is also important to deal with criticism positively. If you take critical and negative comments too seriously, chances are that it will eventually create resentment and aggression toward the other person, hence damaging your relationship.

You must realize that criticizing is just a part of their personality trait and nothing else. Always keep in mind that people who criticize you or make mocking remarks to hurt you about your work or anything are actually the ones that need help instead of you.

So, the moral is to never react angrily whatever the situation might be because this will lead to creating a scene as a whole.

3. Treat the other person with respect

Another important thing you should remember while facing creative criticism is to keep yourself relaxed and treat the other person with complete respect and sympathy. Showing respect and understanding towards the other individual will help to resolve the situation and stop it from getting out of control.

You should portray yourself as a stronger human being who accepts creative criticism from others easily. Just try not to react and not to use the statement as a reason to provide counter attack. If you challenge the other individual, you might begin an argument that is plainly unstoppable and useless.

4. Take the positives out of criticism

It is in human nature to make mistakes. With each passing day in life, we get enough opportunity to learn from our mistakes and be a better person. Thus, regardless of the kind of criticism you face, you should always analyze it to obtain something that you can learn from it to improve yourself further.

For example, whether you’re at work in an office, at school or at a social gathering, try taking criticism on board to help you develop. It is definitely difficult to deal with when someone is attacking badly on your character or your work, but that just doesn’t mean you should avoid it.

In addition, always keep in mind that the criticism targeted towards you might not make sense in a situation like that. In general, there is normally some genuineness in criticism, even when it is given out in bitterness and malevolence.

You can take it as a reflection of how other person sees you at that particular point in time. So, you should take a reverse step and try to view things from the perspective of the other person.

You can even ask a friend to give their honest opinion; use criticism in a wise way and also as a learning experience. If you learn how others perceive you, chances are you might probably land into using criticism for improving your interpersonal skills.

5. Last option, walk away

If you still find it difficult to cope and deal with creative criticism, it is advisable to walk away. It is better to escape if you find yourself losing self-control, or saying or doing something that might potentially damage or hurt the other person in any way.

For instance, how would you respond if you are in a meeting at work and you have been punched right in the face with criticism for your creativity? Well, the wisest thing to do in such a situation is to excuse yourself politely and go away from that room until you gather yourself up.

Although negative comments from others might make you hurt, but it will be more harmful if you allow their criticism to destroy your confidence.

Try to deal with criticism positively!

Although criticism is an unhealthy state of things but still if taken positively can help you learn and enhance your skills. Sometimes if the situation gets worst then ignorance is the best solution to destructive criticism by thinking 80/20 rule of thumb that 80% of criticism belongs to the person who is criticizing, while 20% can belong to you.

—

Jessica Barden is a graphic designer and academic consultant at an essay writing service. She is also an online marketing guru and seeks blogging to inform her readers about the latest trends in internet marketing, graphic design industry and blogging.