Feedback is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the pursuit of mastery.

Most people see feedback as a form of criticism, but it’s actually a source of clarity. Without feedback, you’re left to randomly wander in the dark, repeating the same mistakes over and over again, never even realizing you’re making them in the first place. Feedback is what allows you to identify your blind spots, question your assumptions, and to further sharpen your decision making process. When feedback is viewed as offering direction as opposed to being critical, it becomes one of the most powerful ways to hack the process of mastery.

One of the reasons feedback is so valuable is because it shows you what you can’t see. When you’re doing creative work, it can be hard to understand how good or bad something is because it’s so subjective. Without feedback, you’re left to your own devices and will likely just keep repeating the same patterns of behavior. When someone takes the time to thoughtfully respond to your work, it’s a signal of what’s working and what isn’t based on a set of criteria that you might not even be aware of. This isn’t meant to dismiss your personal tastes, but rather enhance them by adding some structure to your process so you have a better understanding of how others might perceive your work.

Feedback is also valuable because it gives you a clear understanding of what needs to be improved. Instead of having to guess what you need to work on, you have clear direction which means you’re able to practice more effectively because you know what you need to work on for the next time around. When you commit to regularly seeking feedback, each time around becomes an opportunity to get closer and closer to what you’re looking to achieve. The process starts to become more akin to solving an equation than simply rolling a set of dice and hoping for the best.

One last benefit of feedback is that it helps to develop confidence over time. In the short term, the process of seeking feedback can actually be counter-intuitive and even a bit demoralizing because it forces you to confront your own vulnerability. But as you learn to separate your work from your identity, feedback becomes less about tearing you down and more about helping you build yourself up. You develop confidence, not because someone told you what a great job you did, but because you understand what it takes to improve and you’ve actually seen it work for yourself in practice.

Seeking feedback isn’t a hack, it’s a discipline. It’s a commitment to clarifying your perception and sharpening your judgement. It’s a means of taking the unknown and giving you direction. It’s a process that will help you develop your own unique creative language and give you a framework from which you can build upon which each time. When you truly commit to seeking feedback on a regular basis, you’ll find it’s the fastest way to achieve mastery because it allows you to practice with purpose as opposed to aimlessly throwing things against a wall and hoping they’ll stick.