Receiving Praise | Being Worthy Men Episode 267, August 19, 2022
One of the goals of this podcast, my books, and my coaching… is to be inspiring. But whenever someone tells me I’m inspiring, I’ll try to deflect it. Some of that is humility, but at times I can also notice strong resistance, an outright rejection of the praise. I might even want to argue about it — which is ridiculous.
This sort of experience showed up big time in my first guest appearance in about a year when I was on the In The Blood Podcast with AC Fischer and Jason Moore recently.
In the actual show, AC surprised me by saying that I was “a personal inspiration” to him. He went on to say, “Thank you so much for showing that it’s okay for us to have emotions, that it doesn’t detract from our masculinity, telling us that it’s okay to cry, it’s okay to experience the full realm of emotions. It’s just okay to be us. I don’t know if you really grasp how big of a thing it is that you’re doing for your fellow man, Andy. I need you to know right now that you are one of my personal heroes, and I am so thrilled to have you with us today.”
I’m not trying to toot my own horn here. This isn’t a “look at me!” show!
Real Men Feel is about having conversations most men aren’t having but that we can all benefit from. Even if it’s me talking to you without being with you.
I was talking with a friend yesterday and mentioned the difficulty for men to receive praise. He said he wanted to be admired, but when someone tells him that they admire him, he feels uncomfortable; it makes him squirm a bit. I asked why he thought that was — and he said worthiness.
And I agree.
If we can’t fully accept our worthiness as men… if we can’t own our “maleness,” to quote Jed Diamond – receiving any praise is very uncomfortable. It makes us feel like a fraud or that we have imposter syndrome.
You have value and worth simply in being. So be you. You’re the best you the world could possibly have.
We are here to support each other. I don’t believe life is a competition.
Book a call with Andy → https://theandygrant.com/talk
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