One of the biggest blocks to receiving feedback well is that we exaggerate it. Fueled by emotion, our story about what the feedback says grows so large and so damning that we are overwhelmed by it. Learning is the least of our worries; we’re just trying to survive. In order to understand and assess the feedback, we first have to dismantle the distortions. This doesn’t mean pretending that negative feedback is positive or adopting untethered optimism. It means finding ways to turn down the volume on that ominous soundtrack playing in our minds so that we can hear the dialogue more clearly.
