How do you handle criticism?

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Criticism is something we all have to deal with in life. Some of it is just other people in our lives trying to be helpful, some is at work when people are telling us how we can do our jobs in a better way, and some is just mean. Knowing which is which is usually key in how we react. But sometimes it's hard to tell when someone is genuinely trying to be helpful and when someone is being a jerk! My niece is a doctor and she works in a very busy environment where sometimes she really is dealing with life and death situations. And people around her often criticize how she does her work. She's told me quite openly and honestly that she's fairly thin skinned, so someone can hurt her feelings easily, if she doesn't know where they are coming from. She's been working in her field for a very long time now and knows her stuff. And I know that she'd much rather be left alone to do her job and help her patients the best that she can. But there are nights when she finds me online and needs to vent because someone or other thinks they know her job better than she does. And I've learned to just let her get it all out so she can sleep better! I used to enjoy my evaluations at my different jobs because that's where I'd get the best constructive criticism. I would take notes and do the best I could to put those changes to work for me so that my next evaluation would be even better! And if a co-worker came up to me with criticism of how I was doing something, I would listen, smile and thank them and then make decisions of whether or not to make further changes. No one really likes criticism. Let's face it. We all want to be as close to perfect as we can be in our own lives. But sometimes we just have to take it. How do you take yours? Claudia