Shift your criticism from people to actions

Like expectations, criticisms are not necessarily bad. In fact, we all need to be critical in order to grow, improve, and be better—both for ourselves and the people we care most about.

But criticisms are dangerous because they easily slip from healthy and productive to unhealthy and hurtful.

Be careful with criticism, including self-criticism.

One simple way to distinguish whether your criticism might be helpful vs unhelpful is whether you’re criticizing a specific behavior or action vs an entire person. In other words, don’t overgeneralize with your criticisms.