You know what always seems to baffle me .

The fact that we say a lot of things that we do not mean . The fact that we all know a lot of things about life yet we do not practice them .

We refrain from practicing them not out of ignorance but out of …. I do not know .

Say for instance , we all know not to dwell on the negative thoughts but yet, someway , somehow , we still do .

We know not that not one path leads to success yet we all still thrive through one path .

And by we , I mean you and I .

Today , I was brought to a rude awakening . I reached out to a couple of people for constructive criticism on my work .

I do not know what made me feel like I was prepared to listen to it .

Maybe it was because I just wanted to confirm what the little voices had always been whispering all along in my head.

Or maybe it was because I needed a reason a quit

Or perhaps because I just needed a reason to move on but not before saying I tried.

I read a blog post a while back , it centred on how to take criticism. I recall a line from the post that stuck with me ,

‘ Do not let compliments get to your head and criticism get to your heart ‘

But despite chanting this over and over in my head . The criticism did get to me . I read through all the critics had to say over and over and convinced myself that I just wasn’t cut out for this .

I had made up my mind that I was going to take a break from writing. A break that I knew deep down inside I would never return from. I contemplated erasing everything I had earlier posted on my blog.

In that moment I realised something, not one good comment came to mind. I tried to search my mind for one good thing but none came. It was only all the negative that kept replaying .

Before I knew it, I was curled up into a ball on my bed and reading through my own work. All the things they said started playing subconsciously in the background as I read through. The work I once thought was okay became less than average in my mind. I questioned myself on how I could post such contents online.

In the midst of all this, I realised something, if I took a break it would just mean I chickened out and gave up on something important to me.

With renewed determination, I forced myself to sit up and think of the compliments I had received. The people who thought my work was good. I re analysed all the criticism and realised they weren’t as I had painted them to be in my delirious state. I realised they were things I could work on.

Things that I will work on.

I’m human , I’m not perfect but I can at least try.

You know a lot of people say don’t let criticism get to you .

It’s not that easy , so I say let it get to you. Let it shake you up and beat you down . But pick yourself back up and do better.

I’m not taking a break, I’m not giving up. Take this as a disclaimer though, my work won’t be 100% perfect and it doesn’t need to be as long as I’m satisfied with the content I put out .

Accept the criticism, incorporate the ones you can without losing your originality and move on.