Feedback Thoughts

“There is no failure. Only feedback.” – Robert Allen 

This is a simple quote that sums up feedback pretty well. The mindset of learning from mistakes and making them positives rather than negatives is something that is incredibly important for anyone trying to do better in life. Mistakes are inevitable and even necessary for becoming a better version of yourself.

 I read two very interesting articles on subjects related to feedback which I found were very helpful to begin working on self-confidence and just how important it is to work on your mindset. Imagine all of our potential if we all truly believed in ourselves and our ability!

"Self Doubt" - Flickr

The first article I read was Seven ways to crush self-doubt.
There was so much helpful information to take from this article. Before even getting to the steps I found that some of John Spencer's feelings matched some that I also have most of the time which is "hiding my art because I was way too doubtful of myself". Not being confident in your work will hold you back from possibilities you can't even imagine and this is something that I plan to work on myself. 

This leads to another problem I think we all have which John Spencer points out, we all spend way too much time comparing ourselves to other rather than putting that time into actually working on our own lives. That mindset is extremely negative and toxic and it will cause you to always not take responsibility. Not everything needs to be a competition, seeing that someone may be doing better than you in one way does not make them any better than you at all. Why waste time worrying about someone else's achievements rather than achieving your own?

"Perfection" - pixabay

Perfectionism is not as good as a trait as you may think. If anything, it may completely hold you back from what you want to achieve the most. Stop trying to be perfect and just put your work out there, learn from it! Everyone worries too much about what other people think and rightfully so. There is so much feedback being given nowadays because of social media. Learning to accept that nothing is perfect is when you will take a big leap in your work and you might even begin to do things that you held yourself back on because you felt you weren't as good as others. 

Trusting yourself is also something I found as very helpful advice as being yourself is so important in life. Everyone was born different so why try and be a copy of someone else? accepting who you are is a massive leap towards success in life and also happiness and confidence. 

Another topic the article mentioned was learning to embrace a growth mindset. This is a very popular topic by Carol Dweck. She is well known for speaking on a fixed vs growth mindset. This leads me to the second article I studied!

"Fixed Mindset" - Flickr

The second article I studied is A fixed mindset could be holding you back. I think that it's very interesting that the idea of praising someone might actually hold them back in the long run but it makes perfect sense. If you give someone too much praise and no criticism how will they learn that intelligence and abilities aren't as simple as being fixed entities. The basic idea behind someone having a fixed mindset is summed up well in this quote in the article "You have a certain amount of intelligence and there isn't that much you can do about it.". 

It is obviously essential at a young age to understand that you don't have to be natural at something to keep going with it. We can't learn at a young age that people are either born with talent or not, they need to be taught that working hard is always the answer to reach your goal. It's especially awful as you grow older, if you have a fixed mindset the world is a cruel place! People with fixed mindset will not take feedback well at all and will find several ways to deflect criticism. 

Your mindset could be holding you back from being the best version of you possible. Being stuck in a fixed mindset is not good for creativity as you will naturally want to stick with what you know instead of accepting that there is better alternatives out there. Mindsets matter, whether in work or in your personal life it could effect others around you more than people realize. Having a fixed mindset in work could be a huge risk to other people. Jill Klein helps doctors and nurses realize that they aren't perfect and that having a fixed mindset is a dangerous thing to have in that line of work as it can lead to completely talking yourself out of working in that environment. 

Some of the most productive feedback experiences I have are from college. Whether it be something simple like finding a better way to create a design or take an image or even just looking at something from a different perspective. I have found that the best feedback I have gotten throughout college has been from one on one conversations with lecturers, they will tell you the truth and you can either accept it and learn from it or use your fixed mindset to deflect and blame them even though all they want is the best from you. 

The most negative feedback experiences for the most part are actually from family and friends. That may sound unusual at first but one thing I have learned is that a lot of the time people close to you will stop themselves from giving critical feedback in worrying too much about hurting your feelings. This isn't always the case but it definitely does happen. Although there are always people a little too honest, instead of helpful criticism they just give useless information like "It's crap".

Learning beyond college and school is always important too. I got a lot of feedback and some family members that were open and honest in how they felt and gave the best advice they could give. I have always been open to critical feedback and have always tried to make the best of it. I am also guilty of having a fixed mindset at times though, unfortunately even if we truly believe something is great, there is always something someone says that will make you think "Damn, why didn't I think of that? ". 

Overall I found these articles very informative and I think they will help me a lot not only in college but in my personal life. I think it is great that growth mindset is a part of our course this semester as I think we will all have benefited a lot from it by the end of the year! This will also help us all be better at giving each other helpful feedback without the fixed mindset of saying "Whatever" and instead accepting their feedback and putting deeper thought into it. Feedback is essential for us all and it's how we will get the best from each other!