Allow the good thing someone noticed to remain good without adding an apology.

Compliments often get corrected on arrival. Someone says they liked the meal, the work, the room, and the reply immediately explains what went wrong, what it should have been, what you ran out of time to fix. That deflection takes something they were offering and hands them a problem instead. It also asks them to argue you out of your own criticism.

When somebody notices something good this week, say thank you and nothing else. Let the sentence end there even if it feels incomplete. Whatever you were about to add is a conversation for a different moment.