We are all naturally biased towards ourselves. We do not want to admit our flaws and we definitely do not want others to see them. Everything we do seems to be a cover up of our iniquities and flaws. This isn’t a really a bad thing. It’s always the correct choice to minimise a flaw in yourself and the effect it has on you (and anything that you are involved in), be it relationships, work, believes or even life in order to generalise things.

Of course to do this one must first be willing to accept one’s own flaws and obviously you wouldn’t want to fix something that you find precise and is working fine. This is when criticism becomes important. While internal (reality-checks) criticism is viable, external criticism has a higher weight in helping you better yourself. However, it is constructive criticism that has proven to be one of the more effective types of criticism.

What is constructive criticism? It is but feedback justified with rational reasoning and void of bias or judgment of any form. The purpose of constructive criticism is to give feedback to correct a flaw or improve a situation or character trait in a manner that is acceptable to the reserve.

Now criticism in any form is not an easy pill to swallow. It requires a certain level of maturity and self-awareness to digest, rationalise and accept or decline the given feedback with justification.

Some tend to think of a flaw as a secret that must be hidden and never revealed. This leads to insecurities that lead to false pretenses and disguises to hide this flaw, as we fear that a flaw exposed is inherently a bad thing or failure. Now imagine a company with inefficiency in its process or software with a bug or a car model with a defect decides to hide their flaws and guise them with something more exotic? I’m sure these processors and products might even work or sell but eventually it will fail to do what it could have done better. It’s the same ideology with people.

My [humble] opinion is that a flaw is an attribute that can be rectified. If we are willing to accept it as a flaw and actively work towards bettering ourselves, constructive criticism is the opportunity to first identify these said flaws.

In conclusion, use constructive criticism to make you better. Try not to be bitter about it when receiving it and never hand out criticism when YOU are bitter or cannot accept criticism.