Storytime

Hands up if you take a compliment well.  As I thought, not many hands raised. We are not taught to take compliments well. We try to explain why the compliment is not really meant. Sometimes we put this down to modesty, other times we distrust the giver of the compliment. What do they mean? Why are they saying this?  Personal compliments such as 'You look nice today' -in our mind become 'Really think so? Because this is just an old shirt I found in the wardrobe, not ironed and has this mark down on the side here and ...' Work compliments such as 'You did a great job today, they left really impressed' -  becomes 'Not really, I could have searched these databases, or else thought of asking what exactly about the term...' And then there are the ones based on our writing. 'Really loved that story' becomes ' hmm yeah it's an old one and I don't know if it really works, I keep thinking if I changed the time frame and...'...