Reconsider The Overly Critical Person

A person who goes around pointing out everyones flaws and mistakes, who never seems to pass up the chance to put another human down is not  ncessarily doing so from spite or malice. Often what you’re seeing is a person so crippled, so lacking in self worth, self confidence, that they go around trying to cut others down to their own preceived size. They are desperate to level the playing field, so they won’t feel so inadequate or lowly.

Hating them is a waste of your time, and drags you down to their level. Laugh at them instead, or rather at their effort to belittle your efforts. Even better, love them, and work to improve their own self image. They are desperate to be complimented, but have given up hope of anyone treating them well. Their wicked put-downs only make getting any love and positive input even less likely.

Face it, you understand more of how they feel than you’d like to admit! No one gets enough love, enough good words of encouragement or reward. You’ve many times felt unappreciated and belittled, when you hoped for a kind word or a bit of encouragement! How’d that make you feel? It isn’t much fun, is it? Imagine getting loads of such abuse? You’d likely be a bitter one too, in short order.

Oh, sure, its easy to dismiss them. After all, you manage to rise above your suffering and still be a sweet and lovable human; why shouldn’t everyone? Care to take a vote on how wonderful you are all the time? You’d likely not be thrilled if you got an honest evaluation, and deep down, you know it! We all fall horribly short of virtue at times, saying the first nasty thing that comes to us when we’re mad. No one ranks as a total saint most days.

So why not look a bit more kindly on the worst offenders? And maybe try to give them a bit of a reason to be less bitter and wicked? You know you should. Your soul needs you to make a better effort. It matters, more than you want to admit.

Jack