You hear compliments all the time. "Your goal was incredible in that game! David Beckham would have been speechless," or, "Wow. Brown! You must be so proud of yourself. That's such a difficult school to be admitted to." Naturally, human instinct is to cover our face and act as if we are embarrassed of our accomplishments. Shouldn't we be proud of these things?
Shonda Rhimes' novel, "Year of Yes," includes a scene in which hundreds of critically acclaimed women of television are gathered together being applauded for the accomplishments they have made. All of them deter the conversation from them and act as if what they did was no big deal. Newsflash: it's a huge deal.
A professor that hates just about every college student to ever walk this earth just handed you back a paper with a gleaming red A on it. What would you do? Internally, you'd be jumping up and down, running around and screaming so loud people in China can hear you. Externally, you probably wouldn't even crack a smile. If someone applauded you on the paper, it's likely that you would shrug it off and act as if you didn't stay up until 2 a.m. for a whole week working on it.
Why do we do this? Why do we act as if we should be ashamed to own up to our own accomplishments. I'll tell you why. We are scared of being shamed. We are scared that if we say, "I did it!," people will deem us a conceited, egotistical snob. Is this really the case? Probably not. But why aren't we allowed to be proud of ourselves?
Just say, "Thank you." Start a movement and begin by responding to a compliment with a simple two-word answer. It doesn't have to be something extravagant, where you rant and rave about yourself— that's unnecessary. Accept the compliment and move on.
By just saying "thank you," you are able to realize that people are never forced to give out compliments. People give compliments because they are true. Once you are able to recognize that this isn't a Regina George moment and she isn't saying your skirt is cute just to be catty, you feel more confident. Often we look for approval from others. This is simply human nature. However, this approval is not always a bad thing. Receiving compliments boosts your self-confidence and allows you to feel comfortable in your own skin. Accepting these compliments is what allows this to take full effect.
Be proud of what you've accomplished and just say thank you. In the wise words of Muhammad Ali, "It's not bragging if you can back it up."
