Just Take the Compliment

When someone gives you a compliment, what do you say? All together now, “Thank you!” You may be saying, “Tamu, why are you taking us back to toddler years where we learned that rule?” Let me tell you why. We learned to say thank you because it is the proper, socially acceptable thing to do.  But where did we learn to follow up “thank yous” with negatives? Let me present a simple i.e.; let’s say someone says to me, “Tamu, those shoes are fabulous.” Then I respond with, “Thank you, but they are so old.” A perfectly good compliment has just been negated with a “but.” I suspect that some people don’t know how to accept compliments. I also think some people are so concerned with being modest, they feel they have to down play the compliments in some way, as if receiving compliments makes them less modest. Compliments are given for something done well. Another i.e. moment; let’s say you form an event and your guests tell you how wonderful it turned out. How about you just accept the compliment without proclaiming what you did not like about it. When you are good at something, you are just good. Following up a “thank you” with a needless, unconstructive comment, can make you appear unsure of yourself. It can even turn you into a compliment repellent. I’ve given compliments to people and after hearing all the downbeat commentary, I just wanted to just say, “Never mind on that compliment.” There is nothing wrong with accepting compliments and accepting them with a big kool-aid grin. Your acceptance doesn’t make you arrogant. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging that people consider what you did, said, or how you look was/is grand! Compliments are one of the very few things in life that are free..so just take them!