The first day at Art college back in 1985 we were asked to hang our drawings from our summer assignment and present them to the class. One by one we talked about our drawings, trying to explain the rationale from a series of questions thrown to us by our tutors; why we chose pencil or pen, why we created shadows, how we decided on the composition. Surprisingly the drawing that looked perfect and complete was scrutinized by our tutors. The young man who drew the perfect picture and couldn't rationalize his art with confidence, never returned to class.
Now as an experienced designer, I often find myself criticizing my work without even realizing. It's a skill you develop, it just becomes second nature. A good designer needs to learn to take feedback and understand it's a big part of solving design problems. I always try to mentor designers with the philosophy to be creative, we must be flexible, learn to rationalize color, imagery, typefaces, space and lose the fear of being perfect first time round.