Here's to Taking the Feedback!
We are just moments away from bringing in a New Year, and I kept thinking about what I would write to the B. Well community. It just came to me. Here it is…I recently took a road trip across the United States (from North Carolina to California) and had a lot of time to reflect on 2017. During that reflection, I received an email from a university where I teach a couple of classes. In that email were my course evaluations. I have taught college classes for five years now, and I opened my evaluations expecting them to be what they always were… stellar. Shockingly, they were not. It was a mixed bag; some good things were said, and some not-so-good things were said. I wasn’t used to “not good things” being said about my teaching.
I am a teacher. This is my assignment on Earth. Don’t these people know that I am called?! After weeping in the car for about 30 minutes and repeatedly saying, “Are they serious?” or “They seriously hated me.” My friend, or in this case, my “road dog”, encouraged me to take a more objective look at the evaluations. He was right. I realized that I had been given feedback about other people’s perceptions of my performance, and I had to decide what I thought were legitimate criticisms and what was white noise. I also focused more on the many things I’d done right. So, I got strategic. I organized the comments into categories and decided which things I wanted to improve upon in the future and which things I was not going to entertain. Suddenly, it didn’t seem so bad. The universe was working through my students to facilitate my growth and improvement.
As a life coach, I love self-improvement. With this, I encourage you to review 2017 and take the feedback. Which part of your financial situation resulted from your relationship with money, and which was life-happening? What aspect of your romantic relationship improved or worsened because of your choices and behavior, and what part had nothing to do with you? How much of your teenager’s behavior results from your parenting, and which part can be attributed to teenage “growing pains”? Are you doing all you can to improve upon your career? What did you do well? What can you do better?
The New Year presents a fantastic opportunity to reflect, restart, refocus, and re-do. Once you can see the feedback the universe provides you, you can decide what you want to improve upon. You decide what you want to work on. You choose where you would like to grow. As you welcome the New Year, consider allowing B. Well to coach you in creating the loving, abundant, and happy life you deserve. We create our experiences, let’s make something beautiful by committing to consciously getting better each day. Let's grow! I love you!
Happy New Year!
Dr. Adrianne R. Pinkney,
Integrative Wellness and Life Coach
