Fri, 29 Mar, 2024

The Correlation Between Feedback and Confidence

By Asmita Subedi

Let’s just start with a game. Imagine that you are blindfolded and asked to throw 4 pieces of paper, each at a time, targeting at the dustbin. The position of the dustbin will be changed after your every shot and you don’t have any idea where to throw. In your first shot, no one around you responds to your direction of throw; they neither say anything good nor bad. In your 2nd shot, everyone laughs at you and teases you for being such a foolish and inept thrower. In your 3rd attempt, everyone praises you, talks good about you and chants encouraging words. For the last shot, the onlookers will help you with your task, they will guide you towards the dustbin helping you with the directions and you will finally be able to throw the paper right into the dustbin. Now, after having played this game, you might have realized and experienced yourself about how you felt after every shot and how the responses impacted you. At your first throw, when no one responded anything or you didn’t get any feedback, you didn’t feel anything. You didn’t know whether you had done perfectly of failed in your attempt. The second time when everybody laughed at you and called you an idiot, you must have felt really  bad, discouraged and must have lost your confidence. And next, when everyone praised and clapped, you must have been delighted and felt that you had won and regained your confidence. Finally when your friends helped you  complete your task, guiding and supporting, you must have been glad and grateful towards  and you must have had a sense of confidence that you would be successful. By now, you might have realized how feedback impacts us. If positive feedback is given at the right time, then we will get a chance to correct our mistakes and move ahead in our life if we’ve committed any mistakes. In the same way, if we get some positive and constructive feedback, it will make us stronger, more confident and dedicated to achieve our goals and be successful in our life. I am sure that most of us have experienced such situations in our lives several times. We might have received some really good and constructive feedback that might have changed our lives and some really negative feedback that might have hurt and discouraged us. This all shows how feedback positive and negative is correlated with our confidence level and dedication. Feedback is necessary. But we can’t just expect feedback to be positive and constructive every time. We are likely to get more negative feedback than the positive because it is always easy to point other’s mistakes and flaws rather than help them with good constructive remarks. The important thing to remember is that we shouldn’t get discouraged by those negative remarks and lose hope in our lives, be it academic or otherwise. We should take the negative feedback in a positive way and try and ask the ones giving negative comments about why we are wrong and how we can get better. In the same way, if we don’t want negative feedback then we should try and exercise that towards each other.. We all live in the age of social media with Facebook, Twitter and all. We all feel free to like and comment, may it be good or bad. But have we ever realized the impact of our comments on other’s lives? Have we ever realized how our criticism or praise affects other’s mentality and behavior? I know I too have passed several negative comments to people regarding their attitude and their emotions as well. But what is most important is that we should realize our mistake and try to correct it. Just two simple little words or either a smile from our loving and caring ones matter a lot to us and we get inspired to do even better. We gain with more confidence and dedication. So why is it really difficult for us to write or say few good words in favor of people? What’s difficult in saying Great, Good, and Keep it up?? You might have no idea about how glad, inspired and confident the other person might feel hearing these words. So isn’t it good to encourage someone to do better? Who knows, probably you too might get treated in the same way and you shall soar up the sky with your increased confidence. Right now I remember how I brag about the same thing for the whole day whenever I receive some really supportive and inspiring feedback regarding my articles.These are really important for me, they increase my confidence and inspire me to improve myself and write better. :) So, stop criticizing and see the positive aspects of a thing rather than the negative ones. Say good and we will receive better; say bad and you shall receive the worst of it.  Inspire others with your words or good deeds and get yourself inspired. P.S: The above game was taught in our last class of our second semester by our English mentor, Menosh. We all played the game with fun and laughter and we were left with surprise when we learnt the real meaning behind the game. We are really glad to have Menosh as our mentor and learn important life lessons from her. Menosh, you are the Best and we all look forward to learn more from you in the coming days.