Feedback Thoughts

Personally, I found the article Seven Ways to Crush Self-Doubt by John Spencer a great place to start thinking about feedback. For me, in school and in my hobbies (guitar, singing, playing softball growing up), I often want to avoid trying my best in order to provide an excuse for my failures. In other words, I often let self-doubt keep me from doing things I enjoy and that in actuality was (and am) pretty good at.  The reminders to stop comparing myself to others and to trust myself from Spencer's article were very helpful in encouraging me to move past my experiences with self-doubt. In terms of feedback, I have to be willingly to do my best and measure success by the amount of effort I put in rather than by the feedback I get back.
The second article I read and found particularly helpful was Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head by Sabina Nawaz. I really enjoyed how much this article championed positive feedback and the importance on dwelling on the positive. I found myself really encouraged by the writer's challenge to ask questions to get SPECIFIC positive feedback the way most of us do when we receive negative feedback. I think part of the power in specific feedback is that you loose the ability to assign ulterior motives or doubt to specific feedback.

Fearless Kitty (Photo from Feedback Cats Blog)