Handle criticism with dignity.....

"No matter what they take from me, they can't take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all is happening to me.
Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all."
- From the song 'Greatest Love of All' by Whitney Houston

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYzlVDlE72w

"Criticism really used to hurt me. Most of these critics are usually frustrated artists, and they criticise other people's art because they can't do it themselves. It's a really disgusting job. They must feel horrible inside."
- Rosanna Arquette

"Don’t criticize what you don’t understand, son. You never walked in that man’s shoes."
- Elvis Presley

"How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct."
- Benjamin Disraeli

"It's far easier to write why something is terrible than why it's good. If you're reviewing a film and you decide 'This is a movie I don't like,' basically you can take every element of the film and find the obvious flaw, or argue that it seems ridiculous, or like a parody of itself, or that it's not as good as something similar that was done in a previous film. What's hard to do is describe why you like something. Because ultimately, the reason things move people is very amorphous. You can be cerebral about things you hate, but most of the things you like tend to be very emotive."
- Chuck Klosterman

MainMessageForToday
Criticizing is usually easier than doing.

"And she'll never know your story like I do...
You've got a smile that can light up this whole town,
I haven't seen it in awhile since she brought you down,
You say you're fine - I know you better than that,
Hey, what you're doing with a girl like that?"
- From the song 'You Belong With Me' by Taylor Swift

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuNIsY6JdUw

“It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in it's place is a work extremely troublesome.”
― Plutarch, Lives

“If only it were as easy to do the work of others
as it is to criticize their performance.”
― Dan Poynter

“One does not have the right to criticize until he can do the same work without being criticized.”
― Amit Abraham

“Don’t criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances.”
― Abraham Lincoln

MainMessageForToday
Do you usually believe that those who criticize cannot do better?

From the song 'Critics' by Manafest:

This one's for all the people who talk,
Shoot you down before you reach the top,
'Cause they just don't know much about me.
You know the types that say this and that,
Jealous types trying to hold you back,
Soon it will be as clear as can be.
For those who feel that they need to speak,
My life is more than stories on beats,
You'd know that if you knew about me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A03eL8Y2J44

"Know that the amount of criticism you receive may correlate somewhat to the amount of publicity you receive."
- Donald Rumsfeld

"The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism; it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens."
- Gustave Flaubert

"Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked."
- Fulton J. Sheen, Seven Words of Jesus and Mary: Lessons from Cana and Calvary 

"If you find yourself criticizing other people, you're probably doing it out of resistance. When we see others beginning to live their authentic selves, it drives us crazy if we have not lived out our own.
Individuals who are realized in their own lives almost never criticize others. if they speak at all, it is to offer encouragement. Watch yourself. Of all the manifestations of resistance, most only harm ourselves. Criticism and cruelty harm others as well."
- Stephen Pressfield

MainMessageForToday
When criticism feels like an attack, it may be because the motive(s) behind it is inappropriate.

Theme for the week 4/10 - 4/16: #Criticism (cont'd).