Don’t Let Others Put You Down

 
“A man is a critic when he cannot be an artist, in the same way that a man becomes an informer when he cannot be a soldier.”                                                                               – Gustave Flaubert

I feel so uplifted to know many of you liked Oprah Winfrey’s 3 Lessons I shared last Tuesday. It feels good to know these ideas are inspiring you at work and in personal life. Thanks for all the kind words you have poured in my inbox with. They mean a lot to me and I value them so much.

Today I encourage you to run your own race and not allow anyone to put you down, whoever, yes whoever He/She is.  I insist on the word ‘whoever’ because sometimes the Critics can be someone you highly respect, someone in your friend circle or even a family member. By no means I say anyone is bad or wrong. I guess what I wish to say is ‘It is your dream and nobody else, you must protect it’.  If somebody cannot boost your dreams, they have NO right to bust your dreams.

Let me share an incidence that happened last week. A person said to me “I doubt your capabilities on XYZ thing” He said so just because I was not working the way he wanted me to. He was trying to pressurize me to mend his way. Well, just because he was a senior I kept quiet that moment. I smiled and simply said to my inner self and with all respect to my critic…”Dear ABC, who are you to define my Capabilities? My Capabilities are far beyond your imagination. An average minded person like you just can’t think about it.”

I did some further self-talk and thought RESPECT is not deserved by everyone. People don’t respect a Person or Position (though sometimes we have to fake itJ), People respect their Behavior, Attitude, Conduct and their integrity norms.

Critics! Strike them off. Someone has rightly said “All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.”Just Don’t worry about your critics rather I would say: you should be happy because having critics means you are on the right path. “If you chase to win every criticism, play up to people to win their favor, then you will go through life being manipulated letting people squeeze you into their box” says Pastor Joel Osteen of America’s largest Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas.  If you change to every criticism you will lose yourself. Don’t try to become a People Pleaser. You must realize you can’t keep every person happy; you just can’t make every person like you. No matter how kind you are, how good you are, there will always be people who will be jealous and criticize you for some reason. Just don’t bother. Be true to your holy self; quit trying to fulfill other’s purpose and say to yourself ‘I am free to be my proud self’.

Negative People will try to pull you down, belittle your thoughts, and shatter your confidence with their ill-words, narrow mindedness, and small thinking mentality. This is the time you need to hold on to your self-belief. You need to be bold, resilient, persevere and always, always stay positive. Successful people face a hell lot of failures and rejections. The average and mediocre crowd try to pull them down by several means – they mock and jeer at them (successful ones), they try to pull them out of the game and so on.  Eventually and every time, the class of Extra-Ordinaries triumphs.

Today, most humbly, I encourage you to Surround yourself with right people, just eliminate the negative one. Negativity is poisonous. Be true to yourself. Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle. Life is short. Live it BIG.