Your critics are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you
I tried to do what he wanted. It wasn’t enough. “You owe me, Pausch! You’re doing push-ups after practice.”
When I was finally dismissed, one of the assistant coaches came over to reassure me. “Coach Graham rode you pretty hard, didn’t he?” he said.
I could barely muster a “yeah.”
“That’s a good thing,” the assistant told me. “When you’re screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.”
That lesson has struck with me my whole life. When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you any more, that’s a bad place to be. You may not want to hear it, but your critics are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you, and want to make you better.
by Randy Pausch(October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008)
from The Last Lecture
Chapter: I Never Made It to the NFL
Image – Urban Mixer
January 31st, 2010 at 3:22 am
Thank you for that quote. When I studied karate, sometimes the Sensei actually hit you with a stick for doing something wrong, and the appropriate response was, “thank you, sensei.” One time I asked another student why we thank someone for hitting us. I was told that it was a sign of respect; the sensei cared enough to hit you. While I don’t recommend hitting me with a real stick, I have a lot of people to thank for their virtual sticks. BTW, they hurt too.