If the masterpiece was critique, I'd major in art.
In the spirit of "New Year Resolutions" and "Goal Setting For 2008" I spend the first day of the year listening to Mozart's Quartet No. 14, cooking pad thai and drinking white wine while thinking about my life, the year 2007 and....
...oh no worries - this is not going to be another post about how to reach your goals and become more successful in 2008! There are plenty of great posts about what seems to be a popular if though very seasonal topic choice for blogs. Go and read what Rich has to say about it (what an awesome name for an internet marketer ;)). It's really good stuff!
But no...I only want to share with you the enlightenment I received after a bottle of whine and an hour of Mozart. Ready? Good...I'm waaaay too good in self-criticism! You get the irony here? Oh well...let's put it this way: I am horrible in celebrating, honoring and even realizing what I (and others around me) have accomplished.
I always thought of myself as a critical thinker (it sounds cool and people think it's a sign of intelligence to be critical) but never realized how far I had come in mastering the art form of being a jerk to myself and others!
"Every little child can step on a bug and destroy it, but all the scientists in the world combined can't make it work again"
Criticism is good, healthy and constructive in a small dose. Side effects of abusing the consume of criticism are bad feelings...procrastination...hesitation...problem thinking...being an asshole and looking like one too!
You see even this post is overly critical (at least I'm not a hypocrite ;) because most people wouldn't agree with me that I am too critical with them (which again proves my point) but just because I am not very verbal to others when it comes to critique doesn't mean there is none. I just don't think it makes sense to treat others as horrible as I do myself at times. And it doesn't.
Now let's try something different for a change. Let's look at all the accomplishments, all the great results and everything that you did in 2007 that makes you proud and feel good too! Take a few moments and write down every goal that you reached last year...smile...feel good about it and simply promise yourself to do more of those things in 2008!
That's what I'm going to do. Would love to hear from you how it felt and what your opinion is on critique - did you earn your major in self-criticism?
UPDATE: Now how does it come that I'm not happy with the quality of this post hm? Oh man I have to learn alot this year...
