Confidence gives criticism somewhere stable to land.

When you have a settled sense of your own competence, criticism becomes something you can examine rather than something you must survive. It lands on solid ground instead of hitting a nerve, and you can sort the useful part from the noise. Without that ground, every comment feels like a referendum.

After the next piece of hard feedback, wait a day and then ask what was accurate, what was partly true, and what was about the other person. Keep the first two. That sorting is only possible when you are not fighting for your life.