Every month, I publish an answer to a reader’s question. Here’s a transcript of my answer to the reader’s question about how I handle criticism.

Hey Lisanne, how do you handle criticism? How do you feel when others are critical about your work?

Thank you for your question. I appreciate criticism, for example, if it’s meant to help me improve or see things from a different perspective. Ultimately, criticism is shaped by how someone views the world—nothing more, nothing less.

This means that others might see specific things that haven’t come to my awareness yet, which can be useful. But I also feel it’s our job to filter the good ones from the inaccurate ones.

For example, I’ve been feeling that what an artist needs more than discipline or talent is a vision. If you’re always changing what you do based on what other people say, you completely lose yourself. You become something that is constantly affected by what’s around you as opposed to something stable and authentic.

There is this concept of the ‘neutrality mindset’ that I love. The idea of this type of mindset is that you practice the habit of staying true to what you want to do, rather than focusing on the results. This way, you can detach from external validation more easily, and it allows you to stay ‘in the middle,’ making you more steady and resilient against outside noise.

So at times, there’s something valuable to be learned from others’ feedback. I absolutely appreciate it when someone takes the time to help me, but I also like to be picky with whether I take someone’s perspective to heart.

Because the goal of creating things for me is in the act of doing—making your ideas come alive. To see how far I can take it. In the end, I’m focused on bringing my own essence out, and trying to improve a little bit each time, pushing it just a bit further. That’s why the filter needs to be in your own ear. It’s up to us to decide when to listen, who to listen to, for how long, and whether what we take in actually helps us grow. It ultimately means trying to be in tune with your own heartbeat.

Yet when the criticism isn’t constructive, or when I didn’t ask for it, it can definitely feel a bit discouraging, especially if I’ve already put a lot of effort into an idea. I think it’s about finding a balance between a sense of pride, and the desire to grow and refine my work. It’s a learning process, which often involves some messiness, but ultimately, I try to recognize the constructive parts and use them as fuel to do even better next time.

How about you? How do you usually feel when you get critical feedback? Let me know in the comments.

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