Before I begin, I’d like to preface this column with the fact that I am not a psychologist. Yet, I’ve noticed something over the years that seems universal to the majority of the human race. It doesn’t matter how many rave reviews or praise and applause one receives, because the second they receive negative feedback, the good no longer matters. We remember the bad.
I have a good friend who is an author and her work is usually always met with positive reviews. However, one particular time she received a negative comment that really ate at her. She could not let it go no matter how much we reassured her of her talent. We sat in disbelief at how much it impacted her. How can one bad review wipe out dozens of good ones? Then it happened to me.