My Thoughts on Compliments

Hey guys!

I don't know if it's just me (I suspect it's probably not) but I never really know how to take compliments.
It's often just because I don't know if I deserve praise because often it's just me doing what I'm supposed to be doing, in which case, is what I'm doing really that spectacular? Do I really deserve praise?

However, having said that, I can completely understand why people give compliments because I do it myself and it's often for encouragement purposes. For example, I was helping to train a new member of staff last week and she was absolutely brilliant and was great on the ball and making sure every step of the process was done. I think the reason why a lot of us sometimes feel like we should compliment people is because it can sometimes feel like it's a lot easier to criticise people than just to accept that they're pretty amazing at something. Not saying that you would just focus on the negatives but I think it's great to have that encouragement to know that you're going in the right direction, even if you're just doing what you're supposed to be doing.

However, I think the point is that sometimes you can feel obliged to give someone a compliment to make them feel better and I feel like sometimes this can happen more often with kids because they're a lot more sensitive. If a kid is making a lot of mistakes and you have to keep telling them that they're making the mistakes, you can feel like you need to tell them about the things they're getting right so that they don't feel like they're not making any progress and getting everything wrong.

I think, personally, the main problem I have with compliments, whether it be on your work or on your physical appearance is exaggeration. I hate feeling like I can't accept a compliment because it's too over the top and not realistic when, in fact, it might be. It's one reason I find it hard to give compliments because I feel like the way I see reality isn't good enough to warrant giving a compliment that would serve to encourage a person. I wish I would have enough confidence to be truthful in my compliments and not over indulge. I don't want people who are like me to feel like they can't accept compliments because they're probably too good to be true.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! As always, please leave your thoughts in the comments below and I hope to speak to you soon!