Criticism - Is it that bad?

When I am criticised, why I feel bad & why I sulk & why I brood & why I face self-doubt & why I ..........?

I realize that a good part of my self-image is based on how others pereive me. I have an inner-urge to be an ideal person in the eyes of everybody in my circle of concern. When I find out that someone sees me in less than a positive light, I have a tendency to feel devasted.

Criticism implies that I can be wrong!!!!! Whaaaat! How can that be? How can I (a very big I) be wrong? I am right! Why others don't understand me? Why don't they appreciate my situation?

Or, wait....

are they right? Yeah maybe they are right. Yeah they have to be right. They are so confidently critcizing me, that means that they are right. Maybe, I have to change myself. (I can go on and one with these expressions of self-doubt).

In my moment of calm, truth dawns on me - it is futile to satisfy everybody. The only thing I need is to have an open mind to listen to the opposing view. It is ultimately my purogative to decide whether the criticism is worth pondering upon or it is simply a difference of opinion.

Victor Frankl's most famous statement resonates in my mind: "Everything can be taken from a a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms, the ability to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one'e own way".

Good night.