Health & Fitness
Listen to episode 503 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Getting the Most from Criticism | Self-Growth. Edited and adapted from A Life of Character by J.R. Miller.
Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: No one's knowledge is really universal. None of us know more than a few fragments of the great mass of knowledge. There are some things somebody else knows better than you do, however wide your range of learning may be. There are very humble people who could give you suggestions well worth taking on certain matters concerning which they have more correct knowledge than you have. If you wish to make your work perfect, you must condescend to take information from anyone and everyone who may be ready to give it to you.
It is true, also, that others can see faults and imperfections in us — which we ourselves cannot see. We are too closely identified with our own life and work to be unprejudiced observers or just critics. We can never make the most and the best of our life, if we refuse to be taught by others than ourselves.
The best-made individual is the one who in their formative years has benefited from wholesome criticism. Their life is developed on all sides. Faults are corrected. Their nature is restrained at the points where the tendency is to overgrowth, while points of weakness are strengthened.