Feedback Thoughts

Image representing critical voices.
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"If you are not making mistakes, you're not taking enough risks"

Feedback is something I wouldn't be very familiar with, in secondary school it was rarely touched on so I'm glad to be working on it in this course. Previously in my life I have been constrained to being perfect and making no mistakes, for me making a mistake was a sign of failure and disappointment - how I was wrong. This mindset can be quite harmful to people and will leave them feeling unmotivated and lacking creativeness. It's something one must unlearn throughout their life and keep unlearning. Reading "Make good art" by Neil Gaiman was eye opening and inspirational to me. It made rethink old habits and evaluate whether they were positive or negative to me. Making mistakes can be creatively fulfilling and bring us onto a road of self discovery. Being perfect will never better your skills. 

In terms of feedback, realising feedback can be constructive rather than scary and degrading of ones work will set people free of their worries about opinions and being given feedback. Understanding this fear can stem directly from our critical voices of self doubt is a stepping stone in realising ones own potential and not being afraid of feedback or criticism. In most cases, especially in third level education, feedback is a crucial part in developing ones skills and talents as an individual. In reading "Silence the critical voices in your head" by Sabina Nawaz, I learnt that we need five positive voices for every one negative voice we carry around in our heads to feel balanced, happy and productive. Looking, hearing, digging and believing in the positive voices can help increase productivity and confidence in ones work, and understanding any criticism can be taken in but not harshly affecting a person. Counting the five to one ratio is something I will definitely take on board in future projects !