“Here’s my favourite hack for when you get a negative piece of feedback and you’re trying not to take it personally. Grab a notebook and a piece of paper. Now create two columns – on one, write what was said and what the feedback was and on the other side, write about what your interpretation was.”

White then shared an example of negative feedback she received, saying: “I got negative feedback on my book; someone said something specific that they didn’t like the format of my book. That’s what was said. But what really hurt me was actually my interpretation of that feedback.

“My interpretation of what they said was that I’m a bad writer. Then, to make matters worse, I thought about how maybe I shouldn’t have published this book. Maybe I should never publish another book. Maybe I should never talk about the book again. Because people aren’t gonna like it.”

Using this example, White makes it clear that what was said and what she interpreted from it was considerably different and highlighted the ways we can take feedback and how imposter syndrome and insecurities can lead us to make some things bigger than they are.

“We can reduce our suffering greatly when we can separate the reality of what happened and our interpretation,” she says.

The key to dealing with negative feedback without taking it personally