Food for Thought

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. - Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)

I actually really believe that saying up there. When I find myself being especially critical of others, I realize its time for me to take a step back and evaluate me. Usually what I'm being critical about in other people is actually something that I hate about MYSELF.

We all do it, criticize other people, but have you stopped to evaluate the WHYS?

It's not out of "the goodness of your heart". It's usually because it is a quality that you consciously or subconsciously dislike in yourself.

I have been the lucky recipient of some highly critical emails lately. While the emails at first cut deep, I took a step back and did a little self evaluation. I felt like where I stood was firm and solid. I wasn't pointing fingers or saying mean hurtful things to anyone.

I despise the word positive criticism. There is no such thing as positive criticism. There is feedback-- which is a way to help someone to improve and there is criticism. Criticism is meant to tear people down.

I also think there is a fine line between criticism and feedback and you have to be careful not to cross it. When the feedback becomes personal, and you find yourself feeling better the further you trample someone into the dirt-- well then, you have crossed that line from feed back to criticism.

When I ran across this quote, I realized that maybe what these people were saying to me and about me was really just a long discourse about how they really feel about themselves.

But then I took it one step further. Could anything I have ever done given these people the impression that I was how they were accusing me of being?

At first I wanted to shout from the rooftops that I was being unjustly accused and treated horribly unfairly. However, after some deep rooted introspection I realized that there were parts of my behavior or personality that if a person did not really know me, could be misconstrued.

Which really is food for thought.