Mythology and Folklore

  How to Give Feedback Without Being a Jerk by Adam Grant talks about ways to preface feedback. Although the common thing is to go compliment-feedback-compliment, Grant says that usually only serves to make people defensive. Instead, he recommends that you explain why you are giving the feedback. Next, you should take yourself off a pedestal. Make sure that they know you are in/were in their exact position. You can also ask if the person wants feedback to see if they are open to it or not. You should also be extremely transparent with your dialogue. This all sounds really good to me. I think having a transparent dialogue is extremely important. If people feel like you are trying to manipulate them, they are going to be angry and defensive right from the start.                                                                 ...

 The first article,  Seven Ways to Crush Self-Doubt by John Spencer, talks about ways to manage self-doubt. He says that self-doubt probably will not ever go away entirely. One of the ways that he suggests is getting rid of perfectionism. This stuck with me the most. In anything you do, whether it be painting, sculpting, writing, teaching, etc., there are going to be people that are ready and willing to poke holes in it. Accept that there are always going to be critics of your work—you are always going to get feedback from people. Accept it and move on. Feedback is not necessarily a bad thing, even if it is negative. The second article,  Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head by Sabina Nawaz, talks about the negative voices in our heads and ways to stop listening to them or to even (hopefully) stop them completely. After all, you cannot get away from the voices in your head. She suggests focusing on the positive by actively looking for positive things, hearing positiv...