How To Handle Criticism

How do we deal with haters? How do you deal with criticism? How do you deal with putting yourself out there and having people shoot you down, post negative stuff on your content and have you questioned? Why humans do what they do? Well, how do you deal with that?

Circle Of Trust

I want to share with you something that I’ve developed called the circle of trust. It’s a four ring circle. I’m going to draw it out in the sand here. I think it will make the most sense and hopefully you can hear properly with the waves crashing in the background.

The thing to remember is that not everyone’s feedback should be taken the same. The circle of trust really allows you to put this shield of armor around you, so that you only listen to people who are worthwhile listening to.

So, the circle of trust kind of looks like this. We’ve got a big circle. Okay, we’ve got one big circle. We have a little one in the middle, one just around it, and another one right there. Okay, so we’ve got one, two, three, four rings.

Now, here’s the thing to remember. In the middle, I’m just going to draw a line out here. We’ve got you in the middle. The next ring out here, we’ve got family, so I’ll just put family, if you can even read that. We’ve got family, we’ve got close people who really know who you are, they know the essence of who you are. The third ring is going to be, let’s call them, clients. If you can read that, clients or close friends. And then, finally, out here is everyone else.

How To Deal With Haters

I want you to think of when somebody throws a rock at you, right? They literally throw a rock right at you, you have this armored protection around you. You are in the middle. If someone who has no clue who you are, everyone else,  all the trolls, all the haters, all the people who just are wasting their time, post negative stuff online. If they’re leaving comments, who cares? Ignore them. Do not even respond to them because the fuel for haters, is attention.

So, what we want to do is we want to starve these people’s attention by not even responding to their comments. Now, if you post something online and you, in the middle, know that was the wrong thing to do. Well, that’s a different story, okay?

This you, in the middle, you are the ultimate judge. You know in your heart of hearts, was this a good idea or not? Was this something that maybe I should not have posted? If that’s the case, well, now you know the truth.

If someone close to you, a family member is kind of keeping you in check saying, hey dude, man, I don’t know what’s going on in here, but you kind of lost your way a little bit. I would take that a little bit closer to heart as well as myself.

And then, just outside that, we’ve got close friends, colleagues, or even clients, somewhere there. These are people who are closer to you. They’ve perhaps worked with you at a closer level, they know you a little bit better than anyone else out here. And if they’re telling you stuff like, hey man, you should really check yourself, I don’t really think this is a good idea. I would take that a little bit closer to heart as well.

Listen To Those Closer in Your Circle of Trust

But, ultimately, you’re listening to yourself first and foremost, your family, the people that are a little bit closer to in terms of colleagues and clients. And then, everyone else out here, you basically ignore. Think of it like this, you’ve got this Captain America shield that anyone out here cannot penetrate inside because you’ve got three rings of protection around you. Alright? So, that’s the circle of trust and that’s how you deal with haters.

So, there you go.  I hope that circle of trust serves you well. And whenever you’re thinking, oh my God, I had some hate, some negative comments, people talking smack, just refer to the circle of trust. Were they someone you even know? Do they even know you, are they some random troll online? If that’s the case, remember, they can’t penetrate your shield. They can’t get into the center of that circle, which is you and your knowing.

But, if it’s someone closer to you or you, even yourself, well, that’s a different story.

Anyways, if this is helpful, let me know in the comments below. Share this with a friend who might find this helpful as well, and I look forward to seeing you soon.