Learning to take a complement

A weakness that I have noticed in many of us, specifically I have noticed this with most of my Sri Lankan lady friends, is that we dont know how to take a complement. We often find excuses whenever someone says something nice. For example if someone says you’re wearing a nice dress, we say, oh it’s an old thing I got long ago, or when someone says you've done a great job, we say, oh anyone would have done it like that and so on...


Recently I noticed this when I was talking with a close friend of mine and complemented her, and as expected she made an excuse for her success. Then I remembered that I had also been told that I do this often, and it seems to be a common occurrence. Why do we have this need to make excuses for something good about us? Is it cos we don't feel worthy? I do believe that we are who we are due to the power that God gave us and not our power alone and also that we should not be arrogant, but at the same time, we should learn to accept credit gracefully when given, rather than making excuses. Our 'playing small' does not benefit anyone. It will simply undermine our own achievements.

So I told myself that next time someone says something nice I will just smile and say 'Thank you'!