Learning to Accept Compliments

Tegan Groombridge - 1 Dec 17

“You believe any criticism of yourself, yet any compliment must be a lie”

I read this quote in May 2017 and realised that I am always putting myself down, belittling my own achievements and the first to explain why any achievement isn’t really that good. By May this year I had lost 1.5 stone, something I had been struggling to do for last 2 years and I was married to the man I loved. I had just completed my first 10K race with an amazing time (under 70 minutes) having not been able to run for a bus the year before.

At work we had developed a strategy that was helping turn the fortunes of the business. The small team had achieved so much and completed a major project of rewriting 1,000’s of vouchers and I had headed up that team. No, it wasn’t all my work but my favourite voucher codes was starting to turn itself into a real competitor and our donations to charity every month was slowly rising.

With all this achievement I was still telling my running buddies that I couldn’t run, I wasn’t really that fit. My friends were told I had a long way to go on my diet and the mountain we still had to climb at work was just that a mountain, not an acknowledgement that we had at least reached Base Camp.

My husbands one criticism to me (well to my face) has always been you cant accept a compliment. He doesn’t give them out unless he means them and I can’t just say thank you, I don’t need to excuse myself.

Making The Changes to How I Think

So back to May and the quote, I decided that I was going to start saying “Thank You”. It was my mid year resolution and just this week (December 2017) I found myself actually doing it. This year I have apologised for saying “Thank You”, I have given long winded explanation as to why I say thank you so I don’t look arrogant (the poor person that just said you look nice) and I have felt guilt and rude when I have managed to achieve my goal, spending hours even days over thinking whether a friend thinks I am arrogant.

This week though a running friend said “gosh you have come so far since May, that was an awesome Park Run PB and you look so fit, you can see the weight falling off”. I opened my mouth and started to say “I have a long way to go” and stopped. I suddenly turned to Misty (said running buddy) “You know what I feel really strong and I feel really good, Thank You”

It’s taken me 6 months to achieve my mid-year resolution but I managed it, I just said thank you and I felt even better for it. I haven’t obsessed over the comment or my response but write this blog smiling remembering the nice compliment and the long chat we both had over achieving our goals.

Be Proud of Yourselves Girls

I suppose what I want to say to all the ladies is let’s try to accept the kind things people say. We live in a world that we feel we have to be perfect mothers, partners, colleagues and that we need to do that all at the same time. So why shouldn’t we be proud when some one says your doing well or as I like to say “Your Smashing It”.

As women I think we spend lots of time propping people up, trying to make others feel good so maybe its time that we accept it when someone does it to us. I don’t tell people they look good unless they do and when I think that someone really deserves a well done I want to do it. With my friends I want to shout from the sky how proud I am of them, because I am. So here is to “Running in the Changes” and being proud of what we achieve from a nice meal right up to “Smashing It”

Tegan Groombridge

I am a 33 Year Old Woman who lives in Bristol. I work as a Digital Marketing Manager for My Favourite Voucher Codes a voucher code website that donates 20% of its profits to charity every month. I am currently half way trying to lose 5 stone, I am a keen runner with a PB of 5km (with hills) of sub 34 mins. My passion is Rugby, Reading and (W) Riting

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