Hello everyone, it’s Zainab here, welcome or welcome back to my blog! I feel like this whole month has been going quite fast, how are we already over halfway through January?! Today’s post is going to be on a really interesting topic – it’s one that links to positivity but the concept is kind of differing. I recently read a blog post by Writer Ravenclaw in which she spoke about Praise over Criticism – and it got me thinking about the idea of constructive criticism; which then led me further to the whole idea of being generally constructive. So today, I want to look into what it means to be constructive, how it compares to positivity, and more. Let’s jump into it!

- WHAT DOES BEING CONSTRUCTIVE ACTUALLY MEAN?
- HOW DOES BEING CONSTRUCTIVE COMPARE WITH BEING POSITIVE?
- CAN WE UTILISE CONSTRUCTIVENESS TO BENEFIT OUR SOCIETY?
WHAT DOES BEING CONSTRUCTIVE ACTUALLY MEAN?
If things are described as constructive, they are useful and intended to help or improve something.
Cambridge Dictionary
As you can see from one of the official definition, being constructive is used as a means to get better at something – perhaps even eventually excel at something. It’s the idea of getting feedback or improvements, and using them to change.
The word itself, constructive, and it’s connotations are used in many contexts. One of the most widely used ones being constructive criticism: critiques that work to uplift someone rather than put someone down. There’s also constructive journalism (which I’ve spoken about a few times on my blog before) which focuses on solutions rather than solely the negativity around a situation.
Even when you think about construction in everyday life. The whole concept is around building things, which is exactly what being constructive is too. Making yourself better, just like construction does to builders.
HOW DOES BEING CONSTRUCTIVE COMPARE WITH BEING POSITIVE?
So, looking from an external point of view, you may think that being constructive can be pretty much used synonymously with being positive. And, to be honest, they are used interchangeably. Although, when you deeply look into the two, you will come to realise that they can be quite different.
As we know, positivity is about optimism: looking on the bright side and focusing on the good. While this is vital to mental health and our ambitions, there is a limit. I spoke about this in depth in my post Realism vs Optimism – A Comparative Discussion, too much positivity can hurt you sometimes – because that means there’s no actions to take for change, and it can lead to toxic positivity.
While being constructive is literally built on what positivity needs to improve on. It’s about acknowledging the good, like positivity, but focusing on what went wrong and making it better.
In my opinion, I think that focusing on construction is a strand of positivity – the best of both worlds. You’re take pride in your achievements, while simultaneously learning from your failures. This also helps to break down the stigma of failure as well, something a lot of readers of this blog said that they could relate to me on.
CAN WE UTILISE CONSTRUCTIVENESS TO BENEFIT OUR SOCIETY?
We live in a society that is very negative at the moment, through toxicity on social media, high beauty standards, rising adversity; and unfortunately more. But maybe, adding a more constructive approach to our external environments could be the key to making a change.
Think about it, instead of telling someone:
‘You’re perfect at XYZ’ or ‘You shouldn’t bother trying XYZ’
you tell them…
‘If you practice consistently, then you will get better at XYZ’
Can you see the difference? The constructiveness really allows a person to build a skill by giving specific improvements and targets, rather than just saying someone is good or bad.
There’s so many directions this can be taken in, bosses can use this to train their new employees, teachers can use this to help their students (the next generation of new employees.) And people who are on the receiving end of constructive words could pass it on to others, and in an ideal world it could become a cycle of construction. Helping everyone to improve in any aspect of life!
This post was so interesting for me to write and compile, I really hope you guys took something away from it, and enjoyed it! Let me know in the comments what you think about being constructive.
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Have an amazing year!
