Yesterday I posted about the courage of self promoting your work, but today let's talk about accepting and embracing criticism. Two things you need to take into account: first, let's understand who has the right to criticize us and who doesn't. According to @brenebrown we must listen only to those who are "in the arena" meaning, those who also dare to put themselves out there (read her book Rising Strong to hear more about this). In other words, do not pay attention to the person who comments from his/her comfortable couch at home. Accept criticism only from those who are working as hard as you are to be out there, the courageous ones. Second, learn how to distinguish between intentions. Some people want to screw you over so they criticize you in public with the sole reason to hurt you and boycott your content in front of other people's eyes. These people don't deserve your attention whatsoever. Ignore their comment and move on (ignorance hurts more than any kind of attention). Listen to those who are willing to be honest with you because they want to see you succeed, those who share with you their honest opinion in private, offering you a solution on how to do things better next time around. In fact, when showing your work to those people don't ask them if they like it, ask them what can you improve on. That mentality is what will help you accept criticism and use it as a powerful tool to grow. Capisce?