Take the compliment plainly

You've gotten good at handing praise back. Someone says the work was solid and you're already explaining the parts that weren't, or crediting the guy who helped, or making it a joke so nobody has to feel anything. Looks like humility. Works like a reflex.

Listen to yourself next time. Someone notices and you say it was nothing, or it took five minutes, or anybody could have done it. You're not being modest, you're being uncomfortable. Praise puts weight on you and you'd rather set it down than carry it. So you hand it back fast, and the person who offered it learns to stop offering.

There's a second habit under the first. You hear the good word and immediately run it against the ledger. The late nights nobody saw. The thing you cut corners on. The part you got lucky with. By the time you finish the audit you've decided you don't qualify, so you talk your way out of it. Nobody asked you to prove it. Somebody handed you something and you started checking the receipt.

The next time someone tells you that you did something well, say thank you and nothing else.

The deflecting has a root. If every good word has to be earned fresh, you'll never be able to hold one, because the balance resets every morning. So if you are in Christ, you are a new creation. The old is gone, the new is here. 2 Corinthians 5:17. Standing given, not scored. A man who already knows where he stands can take a compliment without checking the math, because the compliment was never what held him up. He can also give one without it costing him anything, which is yesterday's work and today's at the same time. Praise flows easier both directions when you're not defending a position.