Benefits of habit “Compliment someone”

✓ Improves interpersonal relationships
✓ Improves outlook in life
✓ Improves mood

First step:

Compliment somebody once per week

Progress:

1. Start by complimenting a close family member or a friend once per week
2. If it goes well, increase either the number of compliments, or number of people. Either way, do it twice per week
3. Keep increasing the number of people of compliments until you compliment someone every day
4. One of many. Try working towards giving a compliment a day, but don’t force it. Nobody is counting how many times you compliment them, but they will notice

Helpful tips to make it a habit:

✓ Same time of day. If it’s a family member or a close friend you see every day, try complimenting them in the evening after work or in the morning for a good day,
✓ Trigger yourself. Helpful reminders can be sticky notes or pictures of the receiving person in right places,
✓ Let the app help. If you have specific times you meet the person or you know you will meet them, use this app to remind yourself to include the compliment,
✓ Make it a challenge. Use the app to openly challenge your friends to develop the same habit OR make your own goal public with consequences in the case of failure. Make up your own consequences, something that you wouldn’t want to do no matter what.
✓ Reward yourself. In short term, after every time you consciously chose this habit, pat yourself on the back and tell yourself how awesome you just did. In long term, once you feel you’ve gratified people with your compliments enough, take those people out for drinks or buy them a dinner. It will be a great addition to compliments!
✓ Find a routine. Think of your daily routine and chose a habit you already have that complimenting someone can follow naturally. For example, when you meet a person that you want to compliment, right after saying hello, find an appropriate compliment for them.

Tips for beginners:

✓ Warming up to people helps. Try catching the opportunities or let them go altogether. A compliment is something spontaneous. Focus on the person. The compliment should be focused on the person, not in comparison to you. Avoid phrasing like “I couldn’t do that”, “I wouldn’t have thought of that” or similar
✓ Don’t overdo it! Don’t focus on complimenting the same person always if you are not very close with them. It might get misinterpreted
Keep it appropriate. In the workspace, professionalism is a must and some people don’t like unwanted attention. Keep it about work as much as possible.
✓ Try striking a conversation. It’s easier to build a report with people that you like and they like you. The more you compliment people, they more you will be complimented as well.
✓ Not just skin-deep. Try thinking about compliments that don’t refer to a person’s physical appearance. Compliment on a job well done during the next weekly department meeting.
✓ Things can be friendlier. Once you (and people around you) get used to giving compliments, you can try and compliment people more often.