A long time ago I remember telling my friend Danielle that I think everyone should either take an art class or sit in on one. For one thing it's quite amusing but it can also be quite brutal. If any of you have ever had the great Sara Giovanitti as a teacher you know what I mean. Sara is honest and by that I do mean brutal. I've seen this little old lady make college students cry. I'm proud to say she never made me cry though. I took her compliments with a smile and her criticism with a laugh. (You have to always remember to laugh at yourself.) What I'm trying to get at is because I went to art school I was critiqued all the time by my teachers and peers. It became second nature to me and I didn't take what they said to heart most of the times but instead used it to improve my work. I am thankful for this because it has followed me into my personal life as well. I'll admit though there are times when I get critiqued and immediately want to get defensive but instead I've learned to get silently angry which is a good thing because it gives me time to cool down. By the time I'm all cooled down I can take the critique and see how to improve on it. There is a great article on Zen Habits about criticism -
How to Accept Criticism with Grace and Appreciation. I think it would be a good read for all as a reminder on how we might want to consider acting instead.
At the end of the day I want to go to sleep happy and not be fuming over something someone else said. Besides which I think those of us who immediately get defensive when being critiqued have a bigger monster (their ego) to deal with first.
