Milo (age 3) was cooking a “meal” for me in his play kitchen. It involved a pretty elaborate stack of plastic hot dogs buns, teal and red foam blocks, and a lovely piece of bright green lettuce. #mealofmydreams.
He walked across the playroom and proudly handed me his meal, and I thanked him. “Thanks for my meal. You’re a good cook, Milo!”
To which he replied: “Yes I am!”
Ahhhh! Why can’t we all so unapologetically accept a compliment just as beautifully as a 3-year-old? I was struck by the simplicity of the whole exchange: I saw something awesome in another human (Milo’s ability to “cook”), I commented on it in a genuine way, and he received and absorbed the compliment. Badabing badaboom. He even smiled and held his head up tall as he received the compliment.
I tried it out on myself. My sister told me, “you’re doing SO great with your triathlon training this year and you’re being really consistent!”
The default mode (whyyyy do we do this, y’all?) is to say, “thanks, yeah, I felt really motivated in January…who knows if I’ll be able to keep it up, but at least I got one good month in?”
But I tried out the 3-year-old’s confidence and went with this response: “thank you!!! I AM doing great with it right now and I feel so strong!”
I really liked the feeling of accepting my sister’s compliment, repeating it back, and letting those words reverberate around my mind and body while I soaked up all of the good feelings.
Just some thoughts on this Tuesday. XO.
