It’s incredible the number of people who want to offer unsolicited feedback to your work. 

Many times the person thinks it’s coming from a good place (“Hey, I’m going to help by offering some great advice!”), but all that’s really happening is the person is stroking their own ego. That type of feedback isn’t really meant to help you — it’s meant to make the other person feel better.

The trick is learning how to discern what feedback actually matters. 

Certainly the feedback you request from those you trust, or those who can push your work to higher levels, ranks high on the list. However, there’s an even greater indicator on when you should listen:

Is this feedback letting me know whether my work is creating dialogue?

When I submit writing to a trusted person to read through, I always appreciate them the typos and offering suggestions on what would make a sentence sound better. However, the only feedback I hone in on are the ones where the person had a personal reaction.

If I don’t see enough of those, the writing didn’t do its job.

In all that we do, if our work isn’t helping to create conversation to evoke an emotional response, it’s time to get feedback.

Otherwise you can smile, nod and let the unsolicited critics know you’ll think about it.