Are you a natural …

I recently participated in a conversation that went like this…

A: J, good job at the presentation. You are a natural.

J: Im not a natural, we (B and C) put in hard work to polish the presentation.

A: J, you need a recourse on “Affirmation”.

What did A mean? After hours of contemplating what A meant, I finally realised she was trying to compliment me. But when I exercised more self disclosure by revealing that I put a lot of hard work, she replied in a group conversation saying I needed more work to learn how to “receive” compliments?

She could have meant it as a joke.

But Im not a natural in presentations. Should I lie about this strength to be socially polite?

Nah, I feel rewarded if someone compliments me on my strengths, like “wisdom”, “pursuit of learning”, “grit”.

Im not a natural in anything. Except eat and sleep.

Recently, my custard apple tree fruited. 3 fruits. Grown from scratch. I’m no natural gardener. I used to have serious anxiety when Dr Kiat Tan, founder of the Gardens by the Bay first sent me orchids, lots of them. They all died on me. I now can grow custard apple from seed. Years of hard work, experimenting, learning online from a virtual community of gardeners, my own “potgardening blog” which I discontinued as I maxed out my digital space.

Listening to each other is hard work. Have you been in conversations that go awry?

Another thought, what strengths do you like to be complimented on?

Keep going even when conversations go awry. 😀 Share with me your thoughts below.