Negative Criticism Is Not Completely Negative and How I Forwent the Fear of It
Overcoming the fear of showcasing your work
The fear of being judged is corrosive. Period.
Those moments when we have succumbed to the doubts of, “What if I don’t stand tall in others’ opinions?” doesn’t seem alien. It is a constant battlefield in the cellar up there which manages to manipulate us to stay in the comfort zone and not venture outside it because of the fear of the unknown coupled with the fear of failure.
This has more relevance now than ever before. People are more driven to showcasing their work or creations on digital platforms. We refrain from doing so because of the question of self-doubt and receiving negative feedbacks as the aftermath. There might be a constant fear that knocks at our door while contemplating putting our content out there. One of those fears might be the fear that the content could end up being the material for the hungry “opinionated thinkers” who could gorge on our self-confidence.
It often feels like exposing our most vulnerable self, which might shatter the image of how the world perceives us. This happens because our minds are adapted and internally trained to portray only our most refined and polished selves. Thus, the prolific number of excuses that the mind manages to serve on our plate that fuels the insecurities and self-doubt is sometimes staggering. If only we could make the brain manifest this power of convincing that it possesses to actually make us do the things that we want to get done!
I have had my share of self-doubt and shrugged at the idea of putting out my articles. I could never easily make peace with the fact of being judged by others. This fear darted at me every time I decided to publish an article. It is natural to encounter such moments, and it is totally okay. But what is not acceptable is not acting upon it. The easiest way to break the ice is to take the first step.
There are many reasons why we fear being judged and desist from showcasing our work. But irrespective of the reason, the impact remains unchanged: the untapped potential that lost its very meaning of existence. Bottom line, it is you who would have failed your true calibre and denied yourself the right to what you could have eventually become.
We need to understand why it is rational to pull out the weeds in our heads that is detrimental to climbing the growth ladder. Growth?
Open-Sourcing
Those of you with a little bit of technical knowledge would have come across “open-source software”. One of the biggest advantages of open-sourcing is the very fact that it enables geeks from across the globe to look up the code and fix the bugs.
In software development, Linus’s law asserts that “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”.
Mind you, these open-source projects are not by the noobs. The major tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon have open-source wings that harness developers’ potential from across the globe.
This analogy could very well apply to anyone who dreads putting their work out there. It is very humanly possible that we have overlooked the different aspects of our work because we are wired to think in a certain way alone. This often leads to a biased perspective of everything we perceive. Negative feedback can be viewed as a suggestion on the brighter side or as a troll. “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder “, after all!
But come to think of positive criticism as fuel to your feeling of accomplishment, but it is the negative criticism that has the potential to multifold the pace of your growth.
Here is the truth: the Universe was designed for opposites to coexist. When you triumph over positive feedback, you need to be resilient enough to accept the negative.
Maybe you did receive an unprecedented amount of backlash. But aren’t you already ahead of those who are still contemplating whether or not to span out? Forget about the others, but haven’t you already conquered over your set of insecurities and self-doubt? That’s a victory in itself.
“When you pick up one end of the stick, you pick up the other. Therefore, if you decide to take responsibility for your circumstances, you automatically tap into the power to change.”
Stephen Covey
The Spotlight Effect
If that isn’t enough to budge your stance on receiving backlashes, here’s a little about the spotlight effect.
The spotlight effect is the constant feeling that the spotlight is directly swivelled at you, at all times. The feeling that every move of yours is being watched like a hawk and judged for. Individuals tend to overestimate the extent to which their contributions make an impact on those around them. But in reality, most people are so self-engrossed that they pay more heed to themselves than the people around them.
Maybe, your work is the talk of the town for not meeting the “standards or expectations of the audience”, but the question arises for how long? A day or two? Or at most a week? Or, as a matter of fact, how long would you remember it yourself? But did the negative criticism that your work garner teach you an invaluable lesson? This theory isn’t anything unheard of; it has been professed by people for aeons, and it has stuck around for a long time for obvious reasons.
Lastly, don’t overthink.
Footnotes
Here are some of the books that are my personal favourites for combating the fear of negative criticism.
- Antifragility by Nassim Taleb
- Show your work by Austin Kleone
- Daring greatly by Brene Brown
But don’t give those books a read, just because someone said so
