A COMPLIMENT IS MENTAL EQUITY

"You are looking AMAZING! Check out those guns!"

"Thank you, but I still have a long way to go."

"Well, fuck me. Now that I look more closely at you, you're right. You're not even close to done!" How's that for a response?

How often do you receive compliments? I mean heartfelt, genuine compliments? More than once a week? Once a month? They're really not all that common...How do they make you feel? Inadequate? Unworthy? Undeserving? Unfit?

I don't know about you, but I'm not one to hand out compliments willy-nilly. When I give a compliment, I mean it.

Responding to a compliment about your physique with "Thanks, but I still have a long way to go", is treating the compliment like it wasn't earned. It's discounting the compliment, it's discounting your hard work and it's discounting the giver of the compliment, no?

A genuine compliment is a gift. If it's not accepted, how do you think that makes the giver feel? And when you discount a compliment in a way similar to that in the title, aren't you in effect saying, "I don't deserve to feel good...yet"?

Hey, listen. I know that some of you have low self-esteem or are rarely or NEVER given compliments, so it's a strange and foreign feeling to be told something meant to build you up, right?

But here's the thing: It IS meant to build you UP! And, you're allowed to accept it; you even NEED to accept it. Realize that you've worked hard to make progress; that someone has noticed that progress; and realize too that they didn't HAVE to give you a compliment...they WANTED to. They felt compelled to do so because they see your hard work.

So, thank you for reading this blog, but I could do better. *sigh*

I kid, of course. This is THE SHIT! Stay humble, but don't be weak. There's a difference. Being able to accept a compliment like a champ is a gift to the giver AND to you. Take those great feelz and use them as a catalyst for your next workout and all of your workouts to come. They're not in vain. You're making changes, and people are appreciating them.

Those of you working hard to better yourselves and your physique are on a long, lonely road. Just don't sell your efforts short. Every compliment is like money in the bank, baby. It's "mental equity", if you will. When you're down on yourself or just not feeling like you're making any progress, you dip into your mental equity fund, and there, lo and behold!, you recall the "OMG! Check out your shoulders, dude!" or maybe the "Grrrrrrrrrrrl, look at your booty all shelf-like and shit!" or perhaps the "Ummmmm...wow! #Goals!"

So I leave you with this: "Thank you!" That's all there is to say. That's enough. There is no "but..." Just simply "Thank you!" Try it the next time you receive the gift of a genuine compliment. You earned the compliment, and the giver deserved the thanks. The end.

Thank you.

Stay #SavageStrong