When a troll criticizes your work online, you may feel like you have just been sucker punched. Urban Dictionary  describes a troll as, “Someone who deliberately pisses people off online to get a reaction. “Being a creator and stepping out of your comfort zone takes tremendous courage, and many people are not willing to put themselves out there, which is why they sit in the back row of life and heckle others.

Being criticized, as a newbie can be devastating, you may find yourself thinking, “0h my God, is my work really that bad, is it that terrible? Should I stop doing this?” The truth is you shouldn’t quit, nobody is good at something right off the bat. You start off as a newbie, and then you move into the messy middle where you’re building up your skills, it’s still hard but you’re getting a little bit better. Over time you start to get good at something, but if you quit now, you will forever remain a newbie.

Whenever you put something out into the world a troll will have something to say

When you create something and put it out to the world thirty percent of the people will love it, thirty percent will hate it and thirty percent won’t care. The sooner you can accept the truth you realize that if someone doesn’t like your work it’s not worth taking it personally.

Stepping out of your comfort zone and doing something new is like building a muscle, the more you do it the easier it gets. There are even challenges you can do to help stretch your courage muscle. Noah Kagan created the stranger challenge to help people get comfortable being uncomfortable. If you wantto step out of your comfort zone try one of Noah’s challenges.

Many people dream about being a celebrity, they see all of the great perks, going on TV shows, getting free swag, but the reality is that all of these celebrities are heckled daily, and they have to deal with critics and trolls.

You can waste your time worrying about haters, but a better strategy is to keep building your craft and getting better every day. There are a couple of things you can say to the trolls, but truthfully, I wouldn’t even bother.

I look back at work that was originally on my blog and I just cringe, it was so bad. It was good at the time for me, probably my best work. Over time, you are going to get so much better and you would be better off focusing your energy on your craft whatever that may be for you.

Here are a few things you can say to shut up the hater, but personally, I wouldn’t bother saying anything to a troll because their goal is to get you all wound up and to react.