Why do I take work feedback so personally?

When someone critiques your work, it does not feel like a note about the work, it feels like a verdict on you. So a small correction can sting like an insult. You are not thin-skinned. You have just tied your worth and your output into the same knot, and the knot pulls tight whenever anyone tugs the work. Here is the thing worth holding onto: your work is something you did, not the whole of who you are. It can be flawed while you are perfectly fine. A person who says this part could be better is not saying you are less. They are handing you information about a thing outside of you, which, if you can hear it, is actually a gift. Try one small move next time. When feedback comes, silently tell yourself this is about the work. Then ask a real question about how to make it better. That question moves you from defending yourself to improving the thing, and those are very different places to stand. The work can be criticised all day. You remain.