A compliment you can’t accept is a gift you returned without opening.

Batting a compliment away feels like modesty and works like a correction. You are telling the person their read on you was wrong, and you are protecting a lower opinion of yourself from anything that might disturb it. Something got offered and came straight back unopened.

Try two words with nothing attached. Thank you, no joke after it, no explanation of why they are mistaken. It will feel strange the first three times, which is a fair description of most things worth changing.