Let good feedback reach you before turning it into another standard to maintain.

Praise often gets converted into pressure before it has been felt at all. Someone says the work was good, and within a moment you are calculating how to make sure the next one is at least as good, which turns a gift into a debt. The compliment never lands, so the reassurance it might have given you never arrives either. You end up collecting evidence you cannot spend.

When something kind is said this week, pause and let it be true for a minute before answering. Deflecting and improving can both wait until the sentence has actually reached you.