Critics – Who are they anyways?

Critics have been stereotyped to be those set of individuals who always highlight and delineate the ‘bad’ in everything, whether moral or immoral. Their behaviour discharges arrogance, rudeness, humiliation and to be specific, demotivation. They are a pain in the neck and add more suffering to the wounds with their sick and cynical attitude. A resulting frustration, which is undoubtedly obvious, elevates a question in our minds, “Aren’t they supposed to mind their own businesses rather than poking their ugly noses into others’ affairs?” In such a scenario, it is apt to say that the thought in the mind of each individual with an irritating critic would be “Help me! I am cursed”.

In the light of these thoughts, let us imagine a situation where you, a lethargic graduate who boasts of successfully battling exams and are waiting for the right job to come your way, have been critically exclaimed by your father that you do not have the ability to win the race for jobs as a novice. Will you start hating your father for introducing the word “competition” to you and igniting that feeling in you? Consider another situation wherein your friend disgraces you who have to give a test that defines your career and you are too lazy to open the book, by challenging your aptitude to crack the test. Will you start hating your friend for provoking your intensity?

If you ask me, I would tell you that your critics are those set of individuals who know that you have the proficiency to perform better. They are motivators in a pessimistic camouflage that keeps on needling you and in the process, instigates your senses to rise against the odds. I may contradict my previous blog wherein I had mentioned a dialogue from the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” which went like “Don't ever let someone tell you, you can't do something. You got a dream, you got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you that you can’t do it. You want something, go get it”. This was exactly what Christopher Gardener felt when he was put down by critics. But what was left unexplored in the movie was that he felt that he had a statement to prove to these set of individuals and that geared him to pursue a profession that was remotely not meant for him and in the end, excel in it.

With this rehabilitated perspective, isn’t it rational to construe that critics are your true navigators in the disguise of an adversary? People who praise you when you are a nobody are flatterers. These flatterers whom you embrace as your friends most likely use you to climb the ladder to success and your critics are the bohemian ones who save you from committing such avoidable errors. However, their eccentric way of guiding you are repaid with hatred. We believe that their actions are not supportive and reckless, but the fact is that it’s only concern and their trust in your capabilities that triggers them to confront your attributes, when every other positive attempt to motivate you has failed. The whole point made is that a negative influence is the key behind a positive outcome.