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September 1, 2025 • 16 mins

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According to multiple studies, fear of judgement is the number one biggest fear, above dying.
The author Elbert Hubbard once wrote, "Do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing, and you'll never be criticised." And that's probably the only way to avoid criticism, isn't it?

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Richard (00:02):
And hello to you, and welcome to the Richard Nicholls
podcast, the personaldevelopment podcast series
that's here to help inspire,educate, and motivate you to be
the best you can be.
I'm psychotherapist RichardNicholls, and today you'll learn
all about accepting criticism.

(00:24):
And if you are ready, we'llstart the show.
Good morning.
I say morning.
It might not be morning for you.
If so, good afternoon, eveningall.
Have a nice night and everythingin between.
How have you been lately?
Hope the world isn't getting onat you too much.

(00:46):
The thing about being human isthat it's almost impossible.
To hide away from the world.
I mean, you can kind of try, butas so many of us found out back
in 2020.
It's not good for us.
Avoiding social activities mightkeep the critical people and the
possibility of rejection atarm's length, but it also trains

(01:09):
the brain that the outside worldis dangerous and encourages
social anxiety.
So if there's a choice, we don'twant that.
We wanna be able to handle thecritics and the possibility of
rejection.
I mention this because a lot ofpeople ask me about how to
handle criticism.
How to get a thicker skinbecause there are so many ways

(01:31):
that we can be the target ofsomeone's criticism.
And if you are someone who feelsrejection really deeply, please
know that doesn't mean you areweak.
It means you are human.
Just existing is enough toinvite judgment from some
people, let alone the insults wemight get from someone who

(01:53):
didn't just get out of the bedthe wrong side, but got out of
the womb the wrong side.
Or the barrier that the internetcan have on us so that it feels
safer to be rude in a comment onsocial media than it would face
to face.
It's a funny world we live in,but I think the first thing we
need to bear in mind is thatcontext is important.

(02:17):
If you saw scribbled on a pubtoilet wall, Gary Niblock's a
nonce.
You wouldn't phone the policeand say, Hey, I've got a tip for
you.
I know the name of a pedophile.
Because you know it's justsomeone who enjoys insulting
people.
It makes them feel superior,especially when it's anonymous.

(02:38):
And social media can be likethat.
There's been loads of it overthe last few years about
transphobia and climate changedenial.
And then we left the EU andloads of people breathed a sigh
of relief because it meantsomething positive to them.
And loads of others put theirhead in their hands and cried.
And everyone went on socialmedia and argued with each

(02:59):
other.
You can't have such a dividedopinion about something that's
important to you and it not havean effect on people
psychologically.
I've seen genuinely seeingfamilies break away from each
other because the under 45soverwhelmingly voted to remain
in the EU and the over 45s toleave, and people don't like to

(03:24):
think that they're wrong.
We defend ourselves, we stick toour decisions.
You could be the ripest andsweetest peach in the entire
world, and they'll still besomeone who tells you that they
hate peaches.
Don't worry.
Let them hate peaches.
Let them hate you.
It doesn't change anything aboutyou.

(03:46):
You're still good enough.
If someone can't see that, thenthey don't want to.
It's a cognitive bias that we'vedeveloped to help us navigate
the world.
Our brain makes shortcuts sothat we don't have to think too
hard about everything.
Without these shortcuts, orheuristics as they're actually

(04:07):
called.
We're either gonna be theseprehistoric apes that couldn't
think, or would be frozen to thespot every time we had to think
about something.
Unable to do anything else untilwe made a decision.
So these shortcuts are helpful,but it also means that once

(04:28):
we've made a decision aboutsomething, anything, buying a
car, immigrating, having atattoo on your arm of Winnie The
Pooh having it off with Tigger.
We create this bias towards ourdecision so as to protect our
ego.
And even in the face of evidencethat our decisions are bad for
us.
Our brain deletes the evidence.

(04:50):
Or devalues it and increases thevalue of anything that supports
our decision.
Our brains are brilliant, butthey can also be sneaky little
liars when they're trying toprotect us.
So you can't really trust thatother people's opinions are even
genuine anyway.
You can actually trick peopleinto making decisions about what

(05:12):
artwork or attractive faces thatthey claim to prefer by asking
them to put some pictures intoan order of preference, and then
you go back a week later withthe order swapped around and you
ask them why they made thedecisions they did.
And they'll lie to you and tothemselves and they'll start

(05:33):
making stuff up.
Oh yeah.
I just love the blue in the skyon that one.
That's why I put it at numberone last week.
No, they didn't.
We've swapped them round and weknew you'd forget what you'd
chosen.
But when you ask them if theywant to change their mind and
rearrange the order at all.
They don't.

(05:54):
If they make any changes,they're small little changes and
they keep the top one the samebecause a part of them outside
of conscious awareness isinfluencing their conscious
opinions.
This is why I rarely post anycomments on social media.
I'll post my own stuff and maybeshare some other bits.
But I won't comment on somepublic posts about how corrupt

(06:17):
certain political parties mightbe.
'cause then you'll get completestrangers jumping onto the feed,
telling everyone what idiotsthey are for not seeing them as
the saviors of the country.
So you rarely see someone onsocial media commenting with
something like, Well, that's adifferent perspective to the one
I already have.
How interesting.

(06:38):
I'd never thought of it that waybefore.
Thank you.
It'd be nice though if we did.
Can you imagine a social mediabeing a place of polite tea room
chats?
Nope.
I can't see that happeningeither.
We hope that was gonna happenwith Blue Sky and it's better
than Twitter by a hundredthousand percent.
But it's still not perfect.

(06:59):
Even in the real world we'reguilty of these same biases.
And when you are aware of it,it's a bit easier to not take
things so personally whensomeone's being vile towards
you.
The author Albert Hubbard, inhis old biography of John North
Willys, wrote, Do nothing, saynothing and be nothing.

(07:20):
And you'll never be criticised.
And he's right.
The only way to escape criticismis to vanish, and that's no life
at all.
But that's probably the only wayto avoid criticism, isn't it?
And that's why a fear of it hassuch a strong negative influence
on us.
Fear of judgment is the numberone biggest fear above dying.

(07:43):
More people fear criticism thanfear dying, and I don't think
it's because there's less fearof dying around.
I mean, that'd be nice, but it'sbecause that judgment,
rejection, criticism is painful,and if you've always been an
overachiever, thriving on praiseand positivity from the external

(08:03):
world, the reality of how nastypeople can be sometimes can
really bring us down to earthwith a bump.
So they need a thicker skinquickly, or they're gonna
develop anxiety problems.
People who are thin skinnedspend a lot of time and effort
doing things to make surethey're liked and it doesn't
always pay off.

(08:24):
It doesn't matter how kind,generous and friendly you are,
people can still get angry atyou, and if they do, it's worth
looking underneath their anger.
In most cases, anger is asecondary emotion, a reaction to
something else.
Usually if you're angry aboutsomething, it's because you feel

(08:46):
hurt first.
You might feel belittled,inferior, rejected, and it's
that feeling that makes youangry.
And understanding that is lessonone in anger management.
So if someone's angry towardsyou specifically, maybe you were
involved in something that theyinterpreted in a way that hurt
them, it's a bit easier to feelsympathy for someone who's hurt

(09:10):
than for someone who's angry.
You just need to take a few deepbreaths and think before you
speak so that you don't fueltheir fire by being defensive.
'cause they'll feel even moreignored and belittled because
from their perspective you don'tunderstand them, you are not
listening.
So listen to their perspectiveand try and be calm.

(09:34):
Talk normally, slowly and withkindness.
It'll probably throw them offbalance and make them respond
similarly.
It's not easy in the moment, Iknow.
But even just slowing your voicedown a notch can completely
change the temperature of theconversation.
No matter what, it's gonna giveyou confidence that you can

(09:54):
handle those sorts ofsituations, especially if you're
just a messenger.
It's not your fault that theovertime rotas have been
changed, but to angrily say thatto your team member who's
missing their sister's 50thbirthday party isn't gonna
improve your day, but agreeingwith how they feel might do.
Saying, I know, mate.

(10:17):
It's a right pain, isn't it?
I wish it could be different.
It diverts the anger that theyhave away from you and onto the
situation instead helps you tosee that they're angry at the
situation, not angry at you.
So it won't affect your ego,your self-esteem.
Although if we're honest here,not all criticism is angry, is

(10:40):
it?
Sometimes feedback directed atus can be put across quite
calmly and professionally, andthat usually hurts the most
'cause you can't blame theiranger for them telling you that
you're not performing well inyour job.
It might be you're not.
It might be you are and theycan't see it, but it might be

(11:01):
that that's not what they evensaid anyway.
It's important to see thedifference between what people
say and what you hear.
If the person you had a jobinterview with contacts you and
says, thanks for your time lastweek, but you were unsuccessful
in your application, then that'swhat they've said, but you might

(11:23):
hear You're crap.
No one wants you and you'llnever get a job.
Which are two completelydifferent things.
If someone says something calmlyand professionally and it sends
you into a two day depressiveepisode, it's worth asking the
question, what did them sayingthat mean about me and my world?

(11:45):
Because probably it doesn't meananything about you personally,
because it's all about them andtheir world.
So don't make things up byinterpreting things people say
in ways that would hurt you.
And after all they might bewrong.
I'll be honest with you, I getmy fear of criticism as well,

(12:08):
even though I'm very much on theoutskirts of the public eye.
I'm a therapist writer with apodcast who makes his living
outta people being unwell.
And if someone believes thatpeople like that are exploiting
others rather than helping them,then it leaves us open to
criticism.
Now, I know that's not the case.
'cause bizarrely I'm in the lineof work that goes against

(12:30):
everything that businessstrategies suggest.
My job is to make myselfredundant to my customers.
I don't want them to need me.
And most businesses don't workthat way.
So if someone has a history ofbeing exploited, they'll see
evidence of exploitationeverywhere they look because

(12:50):
it's something that their brainhas been primed to see.
Someone who gets bitten by a dogwhen they're young will be the
first one to spot a dog in thestreet when they're older,
because they were unconsciously,in the back of their mind,
looking for one.
And we always find what we lookfor.

(13:11):
And this process helps me todeal with the critics.
I get reviews on my podcast invarious places with people
disagreeing with my perspectiveon things.
It happens.
And it's gonna happen again.
It'd be impossible for it notto.
I was updating the website formy amateur dramatics group that
I helped run last week, and Iwanted to embed a map of where

(13:34):
we rehearse for new members.
It's in this old church hall,and when I went on to Google
Maps to copy the embed code, Isaw that someone had left a one
star review of this church, afew years ago.
The reviewer said, and I quote,word for word.
Carolyn said it was a pub.
It wasn't one out of 10 formisinformation.

(13:56):
Well, that doesn't make anysense.
Why would you?
What?
They made a mistake becausepeople do, and people will make
mistakes about you.
They will misunderstand andmisjudge, although there is the
possibility that they're right,isn't there?
Sometimes criticism is due andit can be useful.
It really can be.

(14:17):
The wake up call needed tomotivate us to push ourselves.
I was a dreadful Manager when Iused to work in civil
engineering.
It was only for a few years.
It just showed what the gift ofthe gab can bring you when
you're in the right place at theright time.
But I had no managementexperience and ended up being,

(14:37):
well, not taken advantage of bymy staff as such, but I ended up
doing a lot of the work myself.
And wasn't even managing with alowercase m let alone as a
Manager, and whilst having myverbal warning about it, my boss
said he'd never had someoneagree so much when given a list
of things they were doing wrong.

(14:58):
But I'd just finished mytraining as a therapist and I
was learning a lot about self atthe time, and I was able to see
where I needed to improve.
And rather than seeing thatcriticism as a negative thing, I
saw it as helpful advice.
Maybe I'm a bit weird.
I was still end up redundantthat Christmas.

(15:18):
Mind you, that was the bestthing that ever happened to me.
I probably wouldn't have becomea full-time therapist without
it.
So listen to criticism becausesometimes there is helpful
advice wrapped up insidenegative feedback.
Anyway, have you seen the time?
We need to finish off.
As the first of the month is aMonday.

(15:39):
This month there's an extraepisode for my listeners that
are also subscribers to myPatreon page, and today the
weekly hypnotherapy track is myProtective Shield visualisation.
Like I always say, the braincan't separate fact from fiction
and imagining that you have thisforce field around you that

(16:00):
allows other people's words andactions to just bounce off and
never get through might beuseful to some of you.
If you're not a patron and you'dlike to have a listen to my
hypnotherapy stuff as well as myMonday morning episodes.
Do please consider coming onboard.
It's only six pound a month andyou can pay more than that for a
pint in some places.

(16:20):
Anyway, time to go.
Have a super week and I'll speakto you again very soon.
Take care.
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