Yesterday my little pit bull got stung by something or another. He ran into the house, straight for my husband, and my husband freaked out. Poor Zeb was swelling up and had hives all over his body.

I called the vet and we got out the Benadryl. Within 20 minutes, Zeb was resting and the swelling started going down.

I started thinking about adverse reactions. I've had a few over the past few weeks, and it created some self-doubt about my ability to write. I really stressed out when I sent some articles to my newest client, convinced he was going to hate them and tell me I was no good. To my surprise, he liked them and offered me more work.

Don't get me wrong--I can take criticism. And I understand that not everyone will like my style of writing. But I can also adapt, given the chance. It's when I don't get the chance that my mind starts to work overtime, wondering what I did wrong. When someone just tells me "I don't like it" without more explanation or any further communication, I criticize myself. And we all know we're are own worst critics!

I try to learn and grow from every experience I have. But it's hard to do when I have nothing to base the adverse reaction on. What I am taking away from all this is that I need to do a better job of communicating with others when I don't like something.

I don't like to feel like a failure, and I don't want to make anyone else feel that way either.