Bad Belief Systems You Must Lose if You Want to WIN - Part 11: Criticalism

No one likes a critic, but that doesn't stop many who criticize darn near everything that happens. Those folks suffer from a belief system that is personally and socially destructive. They believe that nothing is ever right or good enough.

There are two kinds of critics – the kind we're most familiar with is the person who belittles others' achievements and finds fault with the words or deeds of nearly everyone they meet. For these kinds of folks, no one or nothing is worthy of compliment or praise.

The other kind of critic is the inner critic, the part of you that judges, demeans, and disapproves of your own thoughts, words, and deeds. You never do anything right, you seldom use the right words, your work is never good enough, and you're the first person to point it out.

Neither person is fun to be with. Who wants to be with someone who is continually criticizing everything that happens? And likewise, who wants to be with someone whose self-esteem is so low they have nothing good to say about themselves?

My mother was a world-class critic. She never heard a sermon she couldn't improve upon. She never ate in a restaurant where the food was as tasty as she thought it should be. She seldom had good things to say but was always ready with commentary on how things could have or should have been done or said. However, I must compliment her: she reached the pinnacle of success for a critic when a publishing firm hired her as a proofreader—she got paid for pointing out people's mistakes.

Fortunately, I didn't buy into her religion of criticalism. But by her example, she taught me an important life lesson: It's better to praise than to criticize.

So if you think everything is wrong and nothing ain't right, if you're convinced everyone is stupid and you're the only smart person in the room, if you're the kind of person who would rather criticize than commend, who would put down rather than promote, then it's time to start seeing the good instead of the bad, the right instead of the wrong, the blessing and not the blunder.

If you change your bloviating to blessings, if you alter your negative view to a positive perspective, if you move from being a critic to being an advocate, your popularity will soar and your self-esteem will go through the roof.

Ask yourself this question: Do I work, speak, or act better when criticized or praised? Then apply your answer to the way you treat others. And consider this: when you criticize others' words and deeds, you may be describing your own deficiencies.