What to Do When You Win the Award

You won the award. Or you’re in the room with someone who did.

And I want to say something about what that means and what it doesn’t mean. Because the award is real — it reflects something genuine. And it’s also smaller than it feels right now and larger than you might think in the ways that actually matter.

Read this passage slowly.

Let that sit for a second before you move.

Let someone else praise you. Not because you shouldn’t receive praise — but because the praise means something different when it comes from outside than when it comes from yourself. Proverbs is pointing to a posture: let the work speak, let others name it, and hold the recognition with enough humility that it doesn’t become the thing you’re competing for.

Here’s what the award is: an acknowledgment by other people that what you did was notable. It reflects the work, the preparation, the performance over the course of a season or a career. It’s a real thing and worth receiving with genuine gratitude.

Here’s what the award isn’t: a final verdict on your worth. A guarantee about what comes next. Something that belongs only to you when so many people contributed to the performance being recognized. Or something that proves you were right about anything you were arguing about.

The right posture for receiving recognition is the one that takes it in genuinely, shares it honestly with the people who contributed to it, and then moves on. Not performing modesty — that’s just pride in a different outfit. Genuine reception followed by genuine return to the work. Because the award was for what you did. What you do next will determine what comes after it.

Redirects the recognition toward the contributors. The exercise of naming them is itself a humility practice.