I realized today (started yesterday) that no matter how you embrace criticism, sometimes it hurts a little.

Perhaps that happens because one hasn’t fully embraced it (I doubt) or maybe with time (a long time and experience), one gets used to it and it doesn’t hurt at all. I very much doubt that though. I believe no matter your experience on taking criticism, it still hurt sometimes, even though it’s a little.

What really matters is that the criticism is taken in good faith and one is able to do better and improve.

If you feel bad or sad or hurt when criticized or told you didn’t do something well, yet you are all for taking criticism well and implementing it, you might experience a conflict of emotion or an intrapersonal conflict. That’s really hard.

I want to let you know that it’s normal (at least that’s what I think) to feel all those things and instead of denying them, acknowledge them so you better handle it. What you shouldn’t do is lash out on people giving you criticism (particularly constructive criticisms) because next time, they won’t tell you the truth, they’ll simply sugar coat things or tell you what you’d like to hear. That really doesn’t help you in the long run.

So, embrace criticism because it makes you become better when you work on them. At the same time, don’t beat yourself up by getting mad at yourself for feeling bad about a comment or criticism. There’s nothing wrong, it’s normal, particularly when it’s something you really care about or something you’ve worked hard on.