And more important, it is not feedback about YOU. It is feedback about your actions, your theories applied to business, interpersonal relationships, etc.
Don’t take it as personal criticism, because the person doesn’t know your insides. The critic only knows the outside actions you created.
So just say “Huh! That’s not creating a result I want. Let me try something else.”
And sometimes you listen to the critic and understand that there is something deeply wrong with them. Allow them to be flawed. Their perspectives are flawed and are unreliable feedback.
Now let’s talk about the real feedback: self talking to self and finding fault with self’s own performance.
Now the enemy is inside the walls. It’s harder to dismiss the commentary and self feels every barb of criticism.
But it’s still possible to stand back and just say “Huh! I will change things next time. I was wrong this time.”
While it is initially harder for self to admit fault to self, once that hurdle is passed things get easier. If self refuses to engage in recriminations and just gets to work doing things better, the ego is taken out of the game. Humility. Now the inner critic is trying to play tug-of-war with someone who has dropped the rope. The inner critic is powerless.
Not that you should take self-criticism seriously all the time, however. You are just as flawed as your external critics. You’re likely to flame yourself for something trivial just because you got a parking ticket or you didn’t get enough sleep or something like that.
Just look at what happened. Take note and get into action. Move on.