Home

10 Tools Dealing Criticism Rejection Creativity

Tools Dealing 10 Tools Dealing Criticism Rejection Creativity

Ouch! Whether it's feedback we've asked for, an unsolicited remark called out from the audience or a simple "no" result of an audition or submission process, criticism and rejection are a huge part of our lives as creative artists.

Sometimes we're so fearful of being criticized or rejected that we keep our creativity bottled up and don't let it out. This article features 10 tools for dealing with criticism and rejection.

Other times we constantly adapt what we create, focusing only on the "market" and what they seem to be liking or disliking this week. Then we end up feeling like we're not truly expressing our creative impulses.

10 Tools for Dealing with Criticism and Rejection

1. Be Open. You may be hoping for a specific reaction or response to your work, or a specific result of an audition, gallery submission, performance or contest entry. If you've done your best and you're rejected or criticized, you might feel that you've "failed", and it's probably hard to see anything positive about the situation. Try to be open to the possibility that this "failure" is actually leading you to something else, usually better than what you thought you wanted. As I read once in Cheryl Richardson's newsletter, "Any rejection is God's protection".

2. Be Consistent. Keep going, doing the little things every day that keep you creative and that keep you connected to other artists and to your customers. The dramatic moments and big wins and losses will come and go. Have a steady routine you can keep coming back to, and this will help to place any criticism or rejection into perspective. Today is a new day, another day you get to be an artist.

3. Be Focused. Keep your end goal in mind, and always be mindful of why you're doing what you're doing. That will help you focus on the big 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 inside of you. When you're able to be confident in yourself regardless of the feedback you get from external sources, you're able to bounce back much more easily from any negative feedback that you may get.

5. Be Positive. Focus your attention on the positive and you'll attract more of it. This is the premise of the "law of attraction", and I've certainly seen it work in my own life. Hear the positive feedback you receive and replay it over in your mind whenever you need to.

6. Be Clear. Approach constructive feedback with an accurate perspective, not muddled with thoughts from your own inner critic. Take it as a helpful tool for your own growth and remember that ultimately the only opinion that matters is your own because you need to be happy with what you're producing.

7. Be Grateful. Be gracious to your critics, accept all of the feedback you receive, sit quietly and let it sink in. Be grateful to be actively creating to have gotten past the fear and other roadblocks. Be grateful for the opportunity to have your work seen and heard. Some never get the chance.

8. Be Responsive. Decide consciously what to do with feedback before responding, instead of reacting with the first thought or words that come to mind.

9. Be Selective. Once you've decided what to do the feedback you've received, be selective and willing to let go of the hurtful feedback. This usually doesn't have anything to do with you anyway; it's a reflection of that person's own happiness, state of mind and comfort with themselves.

10. Be Loving. Be loving of your critic and ESPECIALLY of yourself. Plan some self-care treats for the day of the audition or submission. Regardless of the outcome, you deserve it!

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

� Linda Dessau, 2005

Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues. Feel like your creativity is blocked Sign-up for your complimentary copy of the popular e-course, "Roadblocks to Creativity" by visiting http://www.genuinecoaching.com

XML error: not well-formed (invalid token) at line 14

Common misspellings for words used in this page include abilty accross acheive acheiving achive activly actualy addresing adn adresing adressing ahev ahve allready alreayd alse alwasy alwyas amking anbd anohter anwsered anytying aready artical artice articel attension audeince availaible availble availiable availible avalable avaliable avilable baceause bakc baout bcak beacuse becasue beccause becomeing becomming becouse becuase bedore befoer beleive belive beng betwen bewteen buisness busineses busness bussiness claer clasic clera comming concider conciously conected consdider consistant consistantly constanly controll coudl criticists critisism critized decribe deffined delevopment deside developement develpment devolopement dicovery diea diferent diferrent differnt diffrent discribe doens doign donig dramtic dreasm eahc ened engeneer engieneer enxt esle especialy everthing eveyr exerternal expecially eyars eyasr fianlly fiel finaly focussed focussing fomr foucs frome ganes gerat gogin goign gonig graet grat greatful haev halp heared helpfull herad hten htey htikn hting htink htis hvae hvea idaeidae inbetween increadible incredable infomation informtion inot instade irregardless iwll iwth jstu jsut knowlege knwo konw kwno laguage lastr liek littel liuke loev lsat lveo lvoe majoroty managment marjority mkaing moreso mroe naturual nkow nkwo nowe nto obstancles oging omre onyl oportunity oppinion opprotunity otehr owrk palce peopel peotry performence phenomenom phenomonenon phenomonon poety populare possably possibilty possiblility possiblilty possiblity postive poverful poweful powerfull prespective probablly probaly probelm proccess proccessing proces pwoer raelly realy realyl recieve recieved recived relaly remeber reponse responce rwite sence siginificant signficant signficiant signifigant smoe soem sotry sould specfic specif speices sqaure stange stopry stoyr stpo strat stroy succesful successfull succsess succsessfull sucesful sucess sucessful sucessfull tahn taht tath teached techiniques teh tehy tghe thast theese theri thgat thge thier thign thigns thigsn thikn thikning thiunk thn thna thne thnig thnigs throught thru thsi thta thyat tiem tihkn tihs timne tiome tje tjhe tkae todya truely tyhat tyhe uise ultimely usally useing usualy ususally valuble valueable vetween visting waht wass watn weas wehn whant whith whn whta whther wih wiht wille witht witn wiull wnat wnated wokr wokring worls wriet wrok wroking ws wtih yeasr yeras yersa youself ytou yuo.