Pay attention to your compliments

The attitudes you pick up around end up becoming little bits and pieces that form yours. I want to talk about humility, false humility and the idea of humility.

To be humble is a good thing, fantastic virtue to have. 

So when someone said to me today that i inspire her, I couldn’t immediately understand how or why

False humility, this is the one that makes politicians sit down beside a woman roasting corn, help her turn a few cobs and take a picture for social media while at it. Or a celebrity says ‘I can shop anywhere even yaba’, like those of us who know the value of wares of at Yaba are in a lower place that they have to condescend to.

Most important in this three is this -the idea of humility. This is what makes you think that not owning your compliments is being humble. This is not deliberate on the part of many of us, it is unconscious. Sometimes, it is also because we think we are not good enough or haven’t attained a certain height deserving of the compliments

So when someone said to me today that i inspire her, I couldn’t immediately understand how or why, and might have passed it off with ‘You flatter me’ followed by a blushing smiley

This is what makes you think that not owning your compliments is being humble

I stopped this one day, after I reread a compliment. A compliment and flattery are not the same thing. 

The next time someone says to you, e.g that you inspire them, you need to realise it is not about you but them. 

You need to realise that it is irrelevant if you think you are not good enough or have not achieved enough, those are your own goals/steps you think you have to take, invisible to the next eye. 

We need to enjoy the process, so e.g if you have a kiosk and sell sugar in nylon packs of N50 each and someone says to you that they like how neat your sugar is packed over another kiosk, you need to own it. Even though you think you want to be the next Dangote sugar or Shoprite mall.

The next time someone says to you, e.g that you inspire them, you need to realise it is not about you but them

Compliments really mean you are doing something right enough for someone else to have noticed.

Own it, then keep at it,

Achalugo

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