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Dealing With Criticism
As with many of you I tend to be an overachiever. Maybe it’s because I like to keep busy. However, I think a lot of it has to do with proving I can hold my own regardless of my disability. It’s a lot though. Really I don’t think people realize how much I do with what little physical function I actually have. So, when I get comments regarding this or that being messy or not pristine I take it personally. It bugs me though that I’m criticized for what I don’t do, but what I do get done is totally overlooked. Any advice on letting criticism roll off your back?
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2 Replies
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This isn’t work related, but I always get comments when people come over to my place saying how messy it is because I tend to not put anything away in drawers or closets. I have all my clothes sitting out on my couch and all my papers on my desk. Putting stuff away means a lot more effort on my part if I need to get anything so it’s just not worth it. I used to try to clean up when someone said something, but now I’m just like this is my home, you’re not here every day, and this makes my life easier, so it’s not your problem. It’s not like the items care whether they’re out in the open or in a drawer either.
There have also been times when I forget why I have something the way I do until someone asks me why it’s like that. Then I’ll fix it to how they want. Some time later I’ll have to use that thing and since I fixed it the way they wanted it’s much harder to use than the way I had it set up earlier. After enough times like that, I’ve come to just trust myself and ignore them unless it’s really something that doesn’t matter.
It also helped I learned to trust myself pretty early on from dealing with physical therapists. They’d suggest I do things one way, but the way I would do it was 10 times easier so it helped me understand I did sometimes know what was best for me.
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Thanks Lupa! Your comment about physical therapists reminded me of when so many people tried to get me to change how I gripped a pencil. In the end it was a waste of their time and effort. Yes, in the overall scheme of things we need to do what we think is best for us.
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