Appreciation is easier to believe when you stop arguing with every specific example.

Deflecting praise item by item eventually removes all of it. Someone names three things they value about you, you explain why each one was luck, timing or somebody else’s doing, and by the end you have talked yourself out of being appreciated at all. The habit usually comes from modesty or from discomfort rather than from dishonesty, but the effect is the same: nothing gets in. It also tires the person who was trying to tell you something true.

The next time you are praised, say thank you and nothing else. See whether the sentence stays with you for longer than usual.