I recently set a goal to be better at giving compliments when they are deserved. You might say that I am compliment challenged, as I am good at neither giving, nor receiving them. Recently, I tried to compliment a co-worker on her curly hair and ended up eventually suggesting that she tell her brother to "check out her body". Of course that sentence is taken a bit out of context, but it was definitely not one of my smoother moments.
Regardless of how good my intentions are, some people just don't make giving compliments easy.
I hate false modesty! For some reason everyone believes that it makes you appear conceited if you accept a compliment without trying to refuse it first. If you know are good at something or that you did a
good job, then you should be able to acknowledge it. You don't have to boast, but the last thing I want to do
when I give you a compliment is argue with you for 10 minutes about
whether or not you deserve it. I realize that you don't want to sound arrogant, but there is nothing wrong with agreeing with someone's praise.
If you really feel like you don't deserve the compliment you are being given, then I am afraid you are just going to have to suck it up and accept it gracefully. When you start telling me why you don't deserve the compliment I just gave you it sounds to me like you are wheedling for more compliments. You can bet that it makes me much more grudging in the compliments I give you.
So you can see, arguing with a compliment is futile and aggravating for the rest of us.
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