(Photo credits: FacebookCoversHub.com)

When you are going to start an exciting project or pursue your passion have you ever felt fearful of criticism and judgement ?
If yes, know that you are not alone. I had those same thoughts too! I know exactly how you feel.

Let me share with you my personal story. Many years ago, I love to create music videos. My first video, I took 13 hours to create a video that is probably just over 3 minutes of showtime . I had to edit, organize the photo images, upload audio, download song, enhance the slides, change the duration of transition and etc

It took me many hours because I wanted it to look, sound and feel perfect. Once it’s done, I was excited to show it to a close family friend, unfortunately, he told me that he could have done much better and mine is just too amateurish. This criticism comes from someone who has never done any music video before! And he does not even know what audio transition is all about!

Most people who criticize others for what they are doing are usually doing nothing themselves. It’s sad when people have nothing better to do than to criticize those who are trying to do something to make the world a better place. If you are in the similar situation, do not be discourage.

Here are three important things I want you to remember about criticism

1) People will judge and criticize you whether you do something or you don’t do anything anyway.
Maybe they are judging how you dress, the way you look or what you do with your life (even if you choose to do nothing), what you are watching, listening or saying.
This is normal. Just ignore them and if your friends constantly judge and criticize you then maybe it’s time for you to re-evaluate the friendship. You deserve to be loved and supported by positive people.

2) Surround yourself with people who lift you up
Most successful people are too busy pursuing their passion, creating things to share with the world and actually living their lives to have time to criticize and judge others. Most of the time, the people who give unconstructive criticism are energy drainers, they do nothing except to drain your energy emotionally and mentally. They are on the sidelines of life who risk nothing and create nothing. The key to handle them is not to let them have power over what you do. Surround yourself with uplifters, people who encourage and support your endeavours.

3) Critics criticized out of fear
Critics feel threatened because when you create something, you are going to leave the status quo and go beyond the ocean of possibilities. As you start to change and move things forward, as you work more effectively, produce more innovative work, you are going to threaten people who don’t like change. Rather than taking personal responsibility for changing, it is much easier for them to criticize others. Just remember to close your ears to your critics, play at your best, focus on your vision and keep moving forward.

(Photo credits: Creativationspace.com)