It’s so easy to criticize. So very easy. And it can even feel virtuous, and responsible, and productive, like something is actually being done! Like the criticism and criticizing are actually doing something for the greater good.
As a lifelong armchair and sometimes professional criticizer, I too have felt that my criticism is productive. Almost a duty. (Lucky you, who have had the honor of receiving it!)
But lately, I’ve been wondering how helpful it actually is? It certainly doesn’t help me have a better experience. Turns out, it helps me feel worse. Of the probably hundreds of thousands of criticisms I’ve unleashed into the world, there have been exactly zero times that I felt joy, happiness, fulfillment, or anything positive or productive afterwards. And when I share my criticisms with others, there is no joy or happiness or substantive improvement added to their experience either. And there is no empathy.
Perhaps there is a more beneficial alternative? Something that actually helps, and also feels better, in the long term?