Saw a social post from years ago today where I was joking about learning how to take a compliment- that moment unironically got me thinking a lot about how poor I'd been with that. With attempts at humility, it can be difficult to take in the idea that someone is giving you positive critiques, and it's sometimes easier to return a compliment or deflect, or just say "thank you".
I think this stems deeper than solely trying to be humble. I was raised to understand how to dish out positive speech, but never how to properly receive it. I remember always believing that it was for show, never actually accepting that I did something worth praising. Even now, I face that hurdle as we all do, but my outlook changed when I stopped doing things for the approval of others, and began doing things for the admiration of myself. I thought I didn't care what others thought, until I began using that as a foundational way of judging how I performed at a task. I finally taught myself how to do things for me- in service, of course, but not for the judgement.
Take a compliment every once in a while, and give out three more for each one you receive. People don't say it if they don't mean it, and the only person you need to prove yourself to is you.
Week 1/14 -L
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