Oh, yes, I do value the feedback. I wouldn't want it to be different. No feedback wouldn't be teaching me anything, so I don't want to hide from critique. I just want to be able to mentally deal with it better at times.

I realise it's a learning process and I won't be perfect, I tend to have needless anxieties which do not help me put things into perspective at times.

Thank-you. I try that, and it does help in the long run, it does keep my spirit up in the long term, but I am forever plagued by doubts. I get thoughts of "even someone of your level should not be making those errors right now" or "even a 2nd year PhD student should have been able to see that it would have been better if worded like this."

I realise that I am bound to make mistakes and errors, but I keep worrying that the errors are ones I shouldn't be making at my level.

I have been working on an application for a placement scheme as part of my PhD in which I will be spending time in Canada for 12 weeks.

This involves a research proposal, split into three sections (statement of interest, the proposal and the benefits to me and Canada).

I sent off my proposal to my supervisor to read through prior to sending to my Canadian contact yesterday. I got the feedback this afternoon and there were some amendments which have got me kicking myself.

Section two (the proposal) was mostly untouched, barring an omitted figure and section three was mostly the same. However, section one was heavily edited by my supervisor. The gist is generally the same, it's mostly been reworded to be more succinct and maybe more professional. I realise this is done for my own benefit, and my supervisor has years of experience in writing these things over me, but I still feel a bit annoyed that I didn't think of this during my proof reads.

I do get annoyed at myself for failing to spot these things or when I do make mistakes which get picked up on by supervisors.

Does anyone have any tips in how they deal with this? How they don't let themselves get too affected from their goals and distracted from how well they're doing?

Hi all. I am a second year PhD student looking for some advice after recently receiving comments from my appraisal monitors for my 16 month review.

First of all, I will say that they are mostly positive, my supervisor rated my progress as good, so deep down I know I am not drastically behind. However, my monitors did suggest that action was needed and raised one point for improvement on which this was based upon. I tend to be a worrier, so this has left me a bit concerned and I am worrying about achieving it and feeling like I have failed somehow. Maybe it is in part imposter syndrome, where I feel like this is proof that I am not good enough, despite the positive comments, but it has dented my confidence a bit.

Has anyone got any advice on how it is best to cope with this and how to alleviate my concerns? Or whether I should be concerned?