Deep down, people understand their imperfections. They understand their limitations, their shortcomings, and even their failings.

It’s innately human to be imperfect, and yet it doesn’t sting any less once those flaws of yours get thrown back at you.

It is what makes the concept of criticism, specifically constructive criticism, so interesting.

Supposedly, constructive criticism is given with the intention of making you better.

Someone finds a flaw in you, it gets identified, you work on it and remove it.

In theory, constructive criticism should be a good thing, but the issue is that these types of comments are rarely understood or delivered in the correct way, leading to misunderstandings.

Constructive criticism can oftentimes just come off as mean-spirited or even self-righteous.

Still, being criticized and getting better from it is crucial to long-term improvement, so things needed to be done to deliver and interpret criticism properly.

Starting with the delivery of critiques, this needs to be done sincerely, and as much as possible, the comments also need to be given within a private setting. After all, pointing out someone’s flaws in public isn’t so much criticizing as it is just plain humiliating someone and that’s not what is needed.

Even when pointing out someone’s mistake, respect needs to be present at all times. And this fulfills half of the constructive criticism equation.

The other half is now dependent upon the recipient of the criticism and how he/she reacts to it.

Instead of brushing off or ignoring the critique, the recipient needs to really listen and evaluate what is being said. There’s a chance that the problem being pointed out is one he/she may not even be aware of, and in that scenario, yes constructive criticism exists and it can prove to be very helpful as well.

Constructive criticism is very much a real thing, and the only reasons why it doesn’t seem to be at times is because the people delivering and receiving it aren’t doing so correctly.