Here’s a fun, start-of-year activity: for your eyes only, list all of your accomplishments from the past year. At least one accomplishment per month.
I got this exercise from Meredith Fineman’s new book, Brag Better: Master the Art of Fearless Self-Promotion. Throughout the book, she offers a wealth of ideas and exercises geared toward helping the reader acknowledge and celebrate their accomplishments by simply stating the facts of their successes and not bullshitting.
Over the last couple days, I’ve sat down and tried this exercise of listing my past year’s accomplishments. Knowing that the list is for my eyes only helps me get over my internalized fear/dislike of self-promotion, and it helps me state my accomplishments directly and without, as Fineman calls it, “dancing around what I want to say.”
In the process of listing my accomplishments, however, it occurred to me to include one extra step, one that completely undercuts the fear of standing up and speaking out about what I’ve done:
For every accomplishment you list, name the impact of that accomplishment.
The impact can be on someone else, on a group of people, or on a system or process. The impact can also be on your own future. Regardless of whether your accomplishment impacted yourself or someone else, I found that simply acknowledging this impact eases the ingrained inhibition of “hating self-promotion.”
I did notice that, as I was naming the various impacts of my actions, I would fall into the trap of using qualifiers such as “I helped…” or “I assisted…,” rather than “I did…” or “I made….” Do you see the difference? The former is minimizing your contribution and the impact; the latter takes ownership of the impact and your active participation in it.
So in true Brag Better fashion, here’s a selection of some of my accomplishments from the past year, as well as their impacts. I hope this inspires you to make your own list, and to start acknowledging your own wonderful impact on your self and on your community:
Conceived, produced, and performed in the Pandemigram project.
Impact: Raised over $7,500 for 43 different charitable organizations, brought joy and connection to people through personalized musical messages, and gave people an opportunity to give back and support their communities.Made the decision to move out of NYC.
Impact: Have been able to save money and energy, putting myself in a good financial and mental place for when I eventually move back to the city.Marched in October’s Women’s March in Washington, D.C.
Impact: Showed up as an ally for the women in my life, using my privileged, cisgender male voice to elevate their voices.Strategized and implemented an entirely new funding management system for the estate planning attorney I work with.
Impact: Provides better, more streamlined service to the client by helping our team keep track of and follow up on tasks and asset status. Ultimately, this builds trust between us and the client.
(Social sharing image by Katya Austin on Unsplash)