There are very few amongst us who don’t like compliments. No matter what you may publicly proclaim about ‘not caring about what others think’, there’s a part of our psyche that will always make us feel better when we hear something good about ourselves or our work. It’s just human nature.

The trouble with compliments though, is that a lot of us assume that others know what their strengths are, and there’s no need for us to fuel any further narcissism.

Or worse yet, when you know the person well enough, we assume that they don’t need to be explicitly told they are good or great at something.

Or sometimes we ever feel weird to say that out loud to them.

But let’s face it. A piece of genuinely positive comment thought or compliment can really make someone’s day. Of course, the real challenge is decoding the ‘genuine’ part, given the state of affairs (especially in blogging, writing and creative arts) where almost everyone seems to be followers of the ‘You scratch my back and I’ll do yours’ regime.

To be fair though, more often than not, you’ll be able to tell (with a certain degree of certainty — and some exceptions) if the compliment is genuine or not. Because regardless of their writing style, prowess, language or any other criteria, there’s a certain element of truth (or fakeness) that shines through every written word. Always.

I suppose the long and short of it is that if you really like someone’s work, then tell them. If you like someone, tell them. If you like the way they deal with some things, tell them. And it’s perhaps a lot more important when dealing with people who are artists or in the creative field— mostly because they have very limited tangible forms of gauging the results of their work.

So tell them. Today.

Or whenever.

But tell them.