To Be ..or to be nothing

Just yesterday I wrote something to a friend, and he immediately corrected a spelling error. Then he gave me feedback on the actual content. He realized what he had done, and was concerned if I was, I guess offended, or hurt by the correction made. And it took me back to my recent clinical experience. I tell you, the clients had no problems critiquing us students during our clinical practice.

But it was necessary critique. For any of us students. I benefited less from the clients who loved my touch and my technique than from the clients who didn’t like some of the things I did and making me aware of it. Everything that comes into our life is because we need it at that time. So obviously, for the clinical experience, the need was for us to improve and refine our hands-on technique. Not so obvious, most of the time, is when any one of us are being critiqued under every day situations.

First of, it takes a little skill to differentiate constructive feedback from critical analysis from someone who just wants to tear you down. Yes, there are indeed people who think they have mastered their ability to hide their own self-esteem issues and lack of self-love behind the guise of “improving” others. Don’t mistake their inability to accept other ways of doing things, or even more so, the inability to accept other people, as something that is for you to work on. But over time, anyone can see through that thin veneer of their insecurity.

Once you sifted out those nay-sayers, keeping them away from your boundaries, you have to allow room for growth. Your own growth, that is. That is when these situations place themselves in front of you, to face what it takes to move beyond what holds you back. Personally speaking, it is truly only your own view and your own opinions that keep you bound to outgrown versions of yourself. So what better way than to allow an outsider looking in to allow you to see what you have to do to progress?