When was the last time you were given a compliment?
What did you say immediately after you let the word pass through your ears to your brain?
Did you say: “Thank you!”
Or did you brush it off, or ignore it and change the subject?
This is a very important skill that every person MUST decide to learn and to take in.
Why?
The answer to “why” is one of the key reasons that I do what I do and I see the result of not being able to absorb a compliment in the needs of the people that I coach and interact with every day.
Let me tell you something that happened to me at the cosmetic counter in Nordstrom earlier this month. I went to the mall to get some spare buttons for a sports jacket of my husband’s and while they were sewing on the buttons, I wandered over the the cosmetic counter to see if something I had been out of was in stock. A lovely woman came over to help me and she and I began to talk as women do. In the course of our conversation she asked me a question and I told her what came to me in that moment and and she drew back and asked me how I could be so precise and correct about my answer. I just laughed and said: “….oh it’s a gift….”; then I asked her the same question about me and she was so off in her answer and that surprised her. What she did was give me a huge compliment about my age, my skin, and my inner well being. I could have chosen to brush off her compliment and change the subject, but I chose to take it in and let it engulf me over the ride home in my car and I felt my face settle into a lovely soft grin.
This lovely woman further engaged me in conversation about many other things and as spoke with her, her eyes widened and she asked me what I did. She wanted my card and I left her with something that really resonated with her. How do I know this? When I thanked her and she gave me my small purchase, she said: “…..you have no idea what you just did for me and I am going to go home and share that with my husband….”. Now, I have no idea what she heard, but I never said anything about or engaged in conversation about her husband or what was going on in his life or their marriage. But, I chose to take that also as a compliment and to let that soak into my very soul.
You see, you have a choice in everything that you do on a daily basis from having a cup of coffee with a friend, to talking to the woman doing your manicure, to the person bagging your groceries to be a blessing and to be blessed.
When we allow ourselves the great joy and privilege of taking in and giving a compliment we have a double blessing.