Sometimes A Creative Kick In the Pants Is Exactly What You Need
Just make sure you’re ready for it
People don’t like being criticized even when they ask for criticism.
Why? Because they’re looking for praise. They want confirmation that their creations are good. They’re after compliments, not feedback.
As bad as it may feel, negative feedback is extremely useful. When used correctly, it’s one of the greatest improvement tools we have.
Knowing if we made a mistake or took a wrong turn allows us to correct our course of action. We get to do something about it. Negative feedback, when constructive, helps us to adjust our behavior and see things from a new perspective.
Despite how it may feel, criticism isn’t supposed to inhibit action.
A good kick in the pants is there to guide us if we allow it.
The Kick Should Come Later
Beginners don’t need a whole lot of criticism. Instead, they need a huge dose of encouragement. When you experience more criticism than encouragement, it’s difficult to continue even if you are receiving the most constructive feedback. It can be overwhelming.
If the advice crushes you to the point where you are afraid to try, it’s time to ignore it, block it, and move on.
In order to learn, we must first make mistakes. The funny thing is so many people fear doing something wrong even when that’s what we expect from them.
To get good at anything, we have to be willing to act the fool and play our part in the learning process.
Kicking the Wrong Pair of Pants
Most people never achieve mastery, at least not in the activities they care about. The kicks don’t hurt when the junk ain't yours. People simply don’t care when there’s no personal attachment to what they do.
It’s a self-defense mechanism that works well to protect the ego, to preserve dreams against reality. But it does nothing to make goals happen.
What’s stranger is that there are plenty of people who shield themselves in this way and still take criticism personally. It probably hurts a little less but wouldn’t it be more worthwhile to do something they cared about? This is particularly true if they will be criticized either way.
You Don’t Have to Tell Everyone You Got Kicked
It’s optional. You don’t have to share everything with everybody. You don’t have to get kicked publicly. Or at least, they don’t have to know it was you.
Practically speaking, you can put yourself out there and still have some anonymity. You can set up a blog, Instagram, YouTube channel, Etsy account, or whatever. People won’t know it’s you unless you tell them.
Even now, there are so many creators we can’t identify. There are countless ‘explainer’ channels on YouTube that I have no idea what the creators look like. I don’t even want to know. I just love their work because they are so good at what they do.
One Kick is All it Takes
Ok, maybe you’ll need more than one. But the timing matters.
Whenever you hit a plateau, you can ask for one. It also hurts less and becomes infinitely more useful.
But whether you ask or not, it’s coming.
Just be prepared for it.
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