If you’ve just walked out of a meeting or program where you received a handful of people’s words and ideas about your performance – IGNORE THAT PILE completely ... and go golfing instead!
After you have drained your brain to come up with good ideas … 
engage people … cover the facts … and draw all the ideas together in a good takeaway … your brain is likely fried for the moment. Give it a break! Your brain bounces back better with exercise and rest.
This is not the time to grab reviews and read them as if your life depended on people’s approval. It’s already too late to fix stuff that went wrong … and it’s too early to adjust your approaches for the next round. So play and laugh and be good to you as if you just gave the session of your life!
Remember that in among that pile of terrific and encouraging ideas and tips that can help you will also be words from a few participants who likely:
- want your job since theirs stinks and they think you do too no matter what you do
- came only because they needed credits from a seminar and yours looked easy
- threw a bowl at some family member on the way out the door that day
- feel sure that their wisdom would complete any program or person they meet
- have only ever gotten mean, sarcastic words and now feel a need to dish out more
- found all the answers to your topic eons ago and have no desire to risk change now
Let it go and fly to the nearest golf course! Whenever you leave a session where you brought new ideas or shared vulnerable risks … your brain is ready to rest. Enjoy the people who shake your hand, smile or share a few laughs as you pack up to leave. But refuse to look at feedbacks for at least a day or more …. I tend to check the written forms after three or four days … and only after I am well rested and ready to renew my next stint.
Written feedbacks offer far more when your brain can zap any negatives into perspective and begin to build on positive tips offered in ways that benefit your growth. How? You will summon more serotonin which comes faster in restful times, and will block the cortisol that spikes when you are tired …. Remember… cortisol blows even the tiniest negative comments far out of proportion – to pull you down and take you out.
That’s why you’ll benefit more if you simply ignore written feedback at first … and just play golf … or sip a glass wine on your patio … to relax. Don’t forget to laugh at yourself too … you deserve the growth that will follow from good feedbacks!
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