Brian Tracy explains how to turn criticism into growth. Control your emotional reaction, ask for clarification, take accountability instead of making excuses, and record feedback to evaluate it through a personal development plan.
Hello, I'm Brian Tracy and today I want to talk to you about using criticism for personal growth. Once you realize that criticism is essential for growth, your critiques will only lead you to greater success. It's never pleasant to receive criticism, and it can be tough to not let a negative comment that could ruin your entire day. While you may be tempted to brush these comments off or avoid feedback altogether, doing so doesn't give you the ability to learn from past mistakes, however harsh it may be. Constructive criticism presents an opportunity to help you to grow and improve. Your personal and professional success depends on you being able to take criticism in stride. Knowing how to handle constructive criticism, even when it's negative, improves relationships, performance and negotiating abilities. Once you recognize that constructive criticism can be used as a professional growth opportunity, rather than taking it personally, you can use the feedback to your advantage. So today I'm going to share a few tips on how to use criticism for personal growth. My first tip is to not let it affect your emotions. While you may disagree with the criticism you receive, don't consider it as a personal attack on your character. It's important to keep your emotions in check. If you have a strong emotional response to criticism, you will find it difficult to see beyond the insult. These strong negative emotions will make it much harder to problem solve the situation and learn from your mistakes. When receiving criticism, take a minute to breathe in, breathe out, and to control your reaction. You can actually retrain your brain to interpret criticism as a stepping stone to growth rather than just a harmful insult. Another tip I want to share with you is that if you need more clarity on the feedback, just ask. If your colleague says that you're doing something wrong but won't elaborate on the correct way to handle it, it's appropriate to inquire further. Rather than getting upset and walking away from the situation, realize their feedback could be an opportunity for growth and ask them to elaborate. This way you can have an open dialogue with that person that helps them feel comfortable communicating with you and helps you grow from their feedback. Once you know what you're doing wrong, you can figure out ways to fix it rather than getting upset or brushing it off. You may even be able to go back to that person later to ask for help or advice. Though criticism can feel pointed and unjust, painful, you won't be able to learn from it if you don't take accountability. Which brings us to my third tip. I recommend taking a deeper look at the problem and avoid making blaming statements or accusations or excuses. While it's easy to get defensive when someone gives you negative feedback, it's much more productive to cut the excuses and take ownership of your part of the problem. Taking accountability allows you to focus on how you can learn from the situation and what steps you need to take next time to change the outcome. My last piece of advice is to consider criticism, a learning experience, an area in which you could improve that will ultimately help you to personally develop. The best way to track this growth is by jotting down the critiques you receive and evaluating them. When I receive feedback, I write it down. Similar to a yearly review evaluation. I have an evaluation with myself. This is the perfect time to focus on yourself and your personal development. Let those critiques help you create a strategy for how you will improve in the long run. Check in with yourself regularly and consider the areas where you have improved and where you can do a little bit more work. For example, if you've been told that it takes you too long to submit your deliverables, or rather than getting upset about the feedback, use it as motivation. Next time you have something to submit, make an effort to get it done in an efficient and timely manner. Then come back to your self evaluation and mark your progress. Allow yourself time and you will see how much more you have improved and grown. Once you realize that criticism is essential for growth, your critiques will only lead you to greater success. As Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, said, the harshest criticism may be the best words you ever hear. If you're looking for a good place to start on your personal development journey, check out my Personal Development Plan Template. A powerful personal development plan that can be referenced daily. This template will help you to identify areas of opportunity and improve your successes. It will help you to learn how to think ahead and evaluate your goals. You can use it to plan for the future more efficiently than ever before. This template is the perfect building block for your journey to success now. I love to hear from you, so thank you. My question today is how do you use criticism for growth? Leave a comment below and I'll be sure to follow up with you. Thanks for watching. And remember, if you want to change your future, take action and take action now. If you enjoyed this video and feel it was valuable in teaching you about using criticism to grow, subscribe to my channel like this video and share this video with your friends. Don't forget to click the button on the screen for a free gift. Thanks again for watching.
