Accepting Praise for Your Successes

Brian Dunning is from the podcast Skeptoid.com, and he was the most recent guest on my podcast Make Your Someday Today.

Success will bring recognition. In business, that could be in the form of a pay raise, a bonus, a promotion, or a bigger office. In sports, that could be medals or sponsorships. Those are relatively easy to accept. They are tangible rewards, something that is measurable and comparable to other people.

In weight loss, the recognition is different. People will say things like "Have you lost weight?" or "You are getting so thin" or "You really shouldn't lose any more weight." Those can be handled with a simple "Yes", "Not really" and "My goal is to be healthy", respectively.

But what do you say to people who give verbal praise? (This can be in any of the above successes.) Peers and family who are unable to give that tangible recognition but are only able to say "You did great on that project" or "You were the fastest in that race" or "You look great!"

Think about those comments. What are your first responses that come to mind. Most likely the response will sound something like "I was just doing my job" or "That's just because I practiced a lot" or "Oh, I didn't lose that much!" People tend to be humble when presented with praise. We downplay our successes. We try to not seem boastful.

That is really wrong. In my Booster episode from today (May 8, 2014) I talk about this problem in greater detail. Listen to the entire show for my rationale and a challenge that I am putting out to everyone. You can find the show in iTunes here, in Stitcher (for non-Apple devices) here, and directly from my website here.

Also, I gave a few more shout-outs to reviewers. Do you want to hear your name? Give me a rating and review on iTunes today!