Your dignity should survive both rejection and praise.

Praise and rejection both offer you a verdict about yourself, and taking either one seriously puts your footing in someone else’s hands. If a compliment can lift you that much, a dismissal can drop you the same distance, because you have agreed that other people’s readings decide what you are. Steadiness means letting both land as information about their view rather than as news about your worth.

After your next piece of praise, notice how much you want to keep replaying it. That pull is the same mechanism that makes criticism unbearable. Try thanking someone sincerely and then setting the compliment down, and see whether the next rough day arrives with slightly less weight.