We all know that when we get a compliment, the best way to receive it is to politely say ‘thank you’ and accept with mosdest humility.  We may sometimes screw that formula up, but it’s one pretty widely accepted response to nice things.

However, the reaction to a compiment that goes on inside our heads is just as important and much more interesting in the forms it can take.  Here are my favorite ways to take a compliment to yourself.

 

8. Song and dance

Yeah! Best feeling in the world!  You’re recognized for all your hard work or someone does something to show you how great they think you are, and you can hardly hold yourself together.

 

7. I’ll take it as a compliment

Someone tries to cut you down a bit, but you recognize it as a compliment because…

a. What they said actually was a compliment, they just said it with the wrong inflection. (i.e. You think you’re soooooo special….well, yeah, I do think I’m special..)

b. They must find you quite an intimidating figure to pay so much attention to what you are doing and to who you are and then to feel that they need to take some of that away.

c. You hear what they said with a different twist. Example from Downton Abbey dialogue between Isobel Crawley and Dowager Countess:

Dowager Countess: “Can’t you even offer help without sounding like a trumpeter on the peak of the moral high ground?”

Isobel Crawley: “And must you always sound like the sister of Marie Antoinette?”

Dowager Countess: “The queen of Naples was a stalwart figure. I take it as a compliment.”

Isobel Crawley: “You take everything as a compliment.”

Dowager Countess: “I advise you to do the same. It saves many an awkward moment!”

 

6. Go on…

I’ve got all day. Fill me up. Tell me how wonderful I am.

 

5.No shit, Sherlock

This one is the favorite when you get compliments about obvious stuff. Like if you’ve been working out a ton and someone tells you that you’re fit. Or when you’ve won yard of the week and someone tells you you’re a good gardener. When someone gives you the smallest little bit of praise and seems to expect that you’re over the moon about it, you mentally react with a little bit of spunk. I mean, come on….

I was looking through one of my old notebooks and found something 20 year old me had written during college when a “dumb ass guy” looked me up and down and said he liked my body. This was an excerpt my reaction:

“The sprints I run, weights I lift, crunches I do, skills I practice…those are for me to enjoy, not some dumb ass guy to gawk over. Hell yeah I have nice legs and a nice stomach! What else could possibly come from my hard work??”

Hahaha! It may not be a reasonable reaction, but it sure is fun.

 

4. So, you’re pretty much in love with me…

Haha, Sucker! Got you RIGHT where I want you! This is when that guy you’ve been eyeing finally drops that clue that he’s secretly into you.  Which, of course, you suspected all along.

 

3. I’ll save that for later

This is that little sweet compliment that you know will carry you a long ways. You just put it in your pocket and remember it when someone’s giving you a hard time.

 

2. Warm fuzzies

Goosebumps. You think that you’ve just heard the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to you. You know that saying these nice things about you was less about trying to make you feel good and more about them saying what you mean to them. It’s gold, and on the inside you feel like you’re in the middle of a giant hug.

 

1. I agree with everything you just said!!

When you’ along with every sweet word someone says about you. While you may take the compliment reluctantly on the outside, on the inside, you think, “Yeah, I am pretty great. What’s not to love here?”

No matter how we take our compliments, the important thing to remember is that we take them.  There’s enough out there to take us down a notch that a little build up and a little arrogance in our own minds is something worth holding on to.