Thank You vs. Thank You

Issue #19

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving celebration and spent it in the company of those who make you smile from ear to ear. We were blessed to have our entire family around the table this year, and for that I am truly grateful.

In our family, giving thanks is a regular occurrence, as we appreciate each other’s gifts and talents, and what each of us adds to the mix. One “thank you” that I’ve struggled with for years, however, is the one that goes along with accepting a compliment.

It’s been at least a dozen years since my younger brother taught me how to accept a compliment correctly, and yet I still struggle with it at times. The process is truly quite simple, but difficult to master, at least in my case. If you struggle as well, I hope you find this helpful.

The correct way to accept a compliment is to simply smile and say “Thank you.”

Simple enough, right? So why do so many of us, women especially, struggle with it?

Some of it may stem from what we’ve already encountered in the world, and the rest from our inner critics for sure, but when we don’t take credit for the work that we’ve done or a big accomplishment, we diminish our own gifts and the importance of sharing them with others.

No one can do what you do the way you do it. And that’s a good thing which deserves to be celebrated. So the next time you receive a compliment, instead of deflecting it, or playing it down as “no big deal” (my go to move), just let it land, soak it in, then smile and say thank you.

With you on the journey…