10 easy rules for dealing with criticism and rejection

Ouch! If it's feedback we've asked for, an unsolicited remark called out from the spectators or an easy "no" result of an audition or submission process, feedback and refusal are a big part of our lives as creative artists. Infrequently we are so fearful of being criticised or confounded that we keep our creativity bottled up and avoid letting it out. Other times we continually evolve what we create, targeting only on the "market" and what they appear to be liking or disliking this week. Then we finish up feeling like we aren't really expressing our creative impulses.

Ten easy "tools" for working with Feedback and Refusals.

1. Be Open. You could be in hope of a particular reaction or reaction to your work, or a particular result of an audition, studio submission, performance or contest entry. If you have done your best and you are defied or criticised, you might believe that you have "failed", and it is doubtless tough to see anything positive about the situation. Try and be open to the chance this "failure" is essentially leading you to something else, customarily better than what you presumed you wanted. As I read once in Cheryl Richardson's newsletter, "Any refusal is God's protection".

2. Be Consistent. Keep going, doing the tiny things each day that keep you creative and that keep you hooked up to other artists and to your customers. The dramatic moments and huge wins and losses will are cyclical. Have a steady routine you can keep returning to, and this could help to set any feedback or refusal into proportion. Today is a new day, another day you can be an artist.

3. Be Focused. Keep your end goal to mind, and always be aware of why you are doing what you are doing. That may help you concentrate on the huge picture and not get tripped up by each bump in the road along the way.

4. Be Resilient. Remember that your sense of self-worth comes from within of you. When you are able to be assured in yourself without regard for the feedback you get from external sources, you are able to bop back much less complicated from any negative feedback that you can get.

5. Be Positive. Target your attention on the positive and you can attract more of it. This is the basis of the "law of attraction", and I have actually seen it work in my private life. Hear the positive feedback you receive and replay it over in your mind whenever you must.

6. Be Clear. Approach helpful feedback with a correct point of view, not muddled with thoughts from your own inner critic. Take it as a useful tool for your own expansion and remember that finally the sole opinion that matters is your own - because you want to be happy with what you are manufacturing.

7. Be Thankful .

Be gracious to your critics, accept all the feedback you receive, sit noiselessly and let it sink in. Be thankful to be actively making - to have got past the fear and other roadblocks. Be thankful for the chance to have your work seen and heard. Some never get the likelihood.

8. Be Responsive.

Decide consciously what to do with feedback before replying, rather than reacting with the 1st thought or words that spring to mind.

9. Be Selective. Once you have decided what to do the feedback you have received, be selective and prepared to let go of the distressing feedback. This generally does not have anything to do with you any way ; it's a mirrored image of that person's own contentment, mental condition and comfort with themselves.

10. Be Loving. Be loving of your critic and Particularly of yourself. Plan some self-care gifts for the day of the audition or submission. Without regard for the outcome, you merit it!

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)