Week 5: Feedback
Getting feedback is crucial for us to improve. I really appreciated someone saying that I should be more organized when giving the pitch, which I completely agree with and is planning to work on that the next time I present something. I have to be non-reactive and realize my work/ anything I produce does not reflect the integral value of me as an individual. A lot of times when I avoided feedback or was deeply impacted by someone else's comments on my work happened because of my ego. When I think about it, it is my ego that is holding me back from learning through the acceptance of my failures. The first step to overcoming this barrier is acknowledging that feedback, whether positive or negative, is guidance designed to foster growth and improvement. Embracing this mindset allows me to detach my self-worth from my work and see criticism as an opportunity rather than a threat. It is essential to cultivate a sense of curiosity about how I can improve and what I can learn from each piece of feedback. This approach transforms the process of receiving feedback from a defensive posture to an active, engaging learning experience.
To develop concrete strategies that help combat my own exaggerated sting of difficult feedbacks, I feel like exposure therapy would work. I need to desensitize myself to it so it doesn't seem like this giant thing in my head, and I am not ruminating it. This is the most important and helpful strategy I can think of right now, because when I have a lot of feedback to draw from, relatively most feedbacks would seem easier to digest as opposed to when I just get a few here and there. One concrete example I can think of is the job hunt: once you get enough rejections, an additional one does not hurt as much.
A great example is when I get my exams back and realized the grade is not what I had expected. This really provides the perfect opportunity for me to see where I have gaps in my knowledge, but I remember distinctively last semester I was so upset and I couldn't see the exam passed the grade. To really unpack what was useful, I asked more clarifications, and it turned out to be very helpful. Going forward, like in the Asian American Poetry class I am in now, I can see the actionable steps I need to take for me to excel, and focusing on the part where I could improve instead of just the state that I am not at an A right now. I am telling myself that the progress is what matters, and what you put in, more so than your outcome.