10 : 1 Compliments and criticism
Someone recently said something negative. They’d misunderstood something, hadn’t checked whether it was true, and passed it on at face value. That hurt.
As if others had known that this was just what I needed, I received a whole host of positive feedback in the days that followed, for example:.
„I just wanted to share a story from last night with you as a little personal thank-you for your brilliant and creative work: I’d met up with three other women from my church to prepare for „Ladies“ Night„ (which we now call “Sister Geknister„ because “Ladies„ Night“ sounds so old-fashioned…) at our church retreat. And a postcard from you gave us our theme: A. had actually ordered a stack of the ‘Ask yourself what brings you to life’ cards for her school class (she’s a religious education teacher), and we thought the card was so brilliant that we’ve now adopted it as the theme for our evening – and we’re going to give each of the women a card and really encourage them to ask each other this question and share what brings them to life.
And then, when we got round to talking about ordering the card and what else your publishing house has to offer, A. and D. were at each other’s throats. „Yes, and there’s also that brilliant booklet with the icebreaker questions“ – „Yes, exactly, but I also find the coaching booklet really helpful,“ and so on. I felt like I was at a tennis match.“
As far as I can tell, I am not dependent on positive feedback. I do what I do to the best of my knowledge and ability. Knowing this gives me peace of mind and a sense of security.
It’s only natural that not everyone understands this, or that not everyone values the same things as I do. But it makes me very happy when people appreciate what I have to offer and understand where and how I’d like to enrich their lives.
