By AMELIA OBERHARDT
I’ve never been much good at taking criticism and when criticised I am incredibly defensive. My face flushes, I get hot and sticky and 80 per cent of the time I break out in some strange red, blotchy rash; attractive I know.
Even a friendly email from my amazingly nice boss saying ‘you mispronounced a word’ sees me rocking back and forth, wiping off my palms and stuttering my way through a long winded tale of why I, like any other human made a mistake. He doesn’t care, he just wants it corrected, but in my head I am walking a hypothetical plank and would rather die than say ‘deem-a-tap’ instead of ‘dime-a-tap’ again.
Why can’t I just take it on the chin? A boy would just say, “Yep, will do”, right?”
If a friend pulls me up on something – most commonly my driving style – I’ll arc up and start getting defensive. “Oh what do you know about driving you sit on a bus twice a day,” “I am yet to cause an accident; the two I have had were NOT my fault” and “My tyres are not balding they are just thinning”.
Criticism is like needing to wee. It’s is one thing in life you just can’t avoid. It comes at you from many different angles and it is inevitably a part of everyday life. Without someone to tell you all the ways you have stuffed up this week, this month, this year how do you ever really self progress?
Top Comments
Morning Bec,
As someone who, for the most part is "all finished and shiny and done" - maybe one too many 'and's' in there? - I want to thank you for your constructive criticism of Amelia's article.
It's invigorating to know there are still members of society who are not willing to limit their critique to those who are over-zealous, and refuse to leave even the tiniest pebble unturned, including for those who are wanting a little self-improvement, like our author, Amelia.
Keep up the good work.
NM
My brother is like this and last time I checked, he is a boy! Problem with him was he sailed through high school and uni, great marks without much study, was always praised for his performance. Got a shock once he was working that he wasn't going to have people tell him 10 times a day "you are wonderful". You can't criticise anything he does, without him taking it as a personal attack. (Even worse, he does the same thing by calling you up, asking for your opinion, and then getting mad at you when you don't agree with his opinion). My older employer used to criticise me for saying the word "got" (I would never use it in written communication but would say it). I tried to turn it around to a positive - if that is what he is focusing on, I must be doing everything else pretty well.