I expected something else from this article, but boy, was I pleasantly surprised! Great read. I’ve definitely gotten too cozy with past successes. I don’t think I was ever cocky about it, but I didn’t continue to push myself to do better, and then I flopped and felt like it was other people’s doing rather than my own.

As far as criticism goes, I’ve been thinking a lot about that recently. I had a bad boss who wore me down with insults and told me I needed to accept “feedback,” but looking back, I can’t think of a single thing she said that was useful at all. She really was just a bully.

However, a recent freelance client was very hard on my work, and I realized that it could be improved…and I took it to heart and am now thankful for the advice.

So I think that while most of us may feel an initial sting of defensiveness, it’s important to identify when someone is being constructive and when they’re just being an asshole. Sometimes it takes time to learn that someone is just being a bully, but the professional thing to do is always to thank someone for their feedback and try to look for ways you can improve.