How to be immune to criticism

Someone once said to me ‘people are telling me that you…’. The description that followed the opener was untrue and a criticism. Don’t get me wrong, criticism can be useful, but when they are factually untrue, those are less practically useful and more emotionally draining. My mind immediately went to thinking ‘why is everyone saying this?’. Then, my mind exaggerated it even further to ‘is this the only thing people will think about me forever?’. I then got cross and wanted to challenge the person who said this (think duelling at dawn style) and then still in the first 60 seconds since hearing the criticism, my brain calmed, and I remembered ‘it doesn’t matter’.

People will say what they say – especially competitors – it’s more important to do what you say you will and let your actions speak for themselves. Funnily enough, within the next 24 hours someone had posted a comment on LinkedIn that read ‘thanks for walking the talk Fiona’. My brain didn’t automatically exaggerate that comment, and maybe that’s the key learning to have – being immune to criticism is impossible and being inspired and empowered by compliments is something to practice.