Today I woke up to a lovely email from a dear friend who knows me for several decades, wished me luck on my upcoming radio interview, and told me “I was Rockin it!” My first response was to say, “Thanks, I appreciate that but I’m not blah blah blah (fill in the blanks) and to focus on what I haven’t been doing.

How common is that!

Especially for women!

Luckily I stopped, took a beat, and said, “Woo-hoo” subject for today’s post.

Embrace Don’t Deflect Compliments.

Just because something doesn’t look the way you want it to, or because you’re a hardcore perfectionist, or you plain ol’ have a tough time accepting praise, it doesn’t serve you to deflect a compliment or acknowledgment from someone truly wanting to champion you.

When others deflect my praise to them, I smile, mime a Take 2 clapboard, as in film, as in doing a re-take, and say, “Let’s try that again.” They laugh and say, “Thank you, I appreciate it!” and we both have a good laugh of recognition.

Compliments are gifts we give others and others give us. You would never throw a gift back in another person’s face and say, “Take it back, it’s not for me,” you would be gracious and say “Thanks so much for thinking of me. That’s so thoughtful of you.”

So the next time you have an impulse to negate or deflect a word of praise, stop, breathe, take it in, and just say “Thanks.” Allow yourself to feel what comes up.

How can you either give or receive praise, an acknowledgment in your life today? Thanks for tuning in and not tuning out!