6 Ways To Feel More Comfortable Celebrating Your Accomplishments

You don't have to start spewing random information about your sale projections in the middle of a movie night, but one way to ease into talking about yourself with people at work is by doing it around people you are comfortable with first. According to the survey, only one in three white and Hispanic women are very comfortable talking about their accomplishments with friends or family members. But there's a way to change that.

“Make it more of part of the narrative that you share with other people informally," Hirsch says. "I say that because I think a way to build the muscle for greater impact." Plus, any good friend should want to know about and be proud of how you're killing it at work.

When people ask you what you do, it's unfair to yourself to say something like, "I'm just a lawyer," which is often the case as the survey shows that 69% of women would rather minimize their successes than tell people about them. When you downplay the answer, the way it translates psychologically is probably negative, Hirsch says. Underselling yourself and your work can have a really negative impact on your sense of self-worth, which can end up causing a lot of damage in the long-run. You can practice getting out of this habit by stating your full title and throwing in a few impressive details next time someone asks you what you do. Not only can this make you feel more confident about the importance of what you do, but it can also open the door for possible career growth, depending on who you're talking to.

Representation is important. When a woman talks about herself and her achievements, it helps other women want to do the same. So, next time you feel uncomfortable talking about how great you're doing, try to remember that you could be inspiring someone else. And the more women who become inspired to talk about themselves, the better.

"I started to salivate thinking about the power that could be unleashed if more of the older women really shared their accomplishments and their skills and their stories,” Hirsch says. “I just think it could really help tip the scales towards gender equality.”

Although using social media can negatively affect your mental health in some cases, it can also wield some positive results.

You can use LinkedIn to your benefit or showcase your work on Instagram. Social media is a great way of reaching big audiences, especially because you never know what potential employer or customer might be looking at your feed. “I think [social media is] just encouraging people to showcase their lives in a way that is probably positive in terms of career development," McMillin says.

It’s no secret that networking is crucial to the advancement of almost any career. And yet, the survey shows that about 77% of women can find something more pleasant than talking about themselves in a room full of strangers. This means that women are really missing out on potential opportunities to get ahead. "There is simply an opportunity cost to downplay your achievements and to not talking about your accomplishments," McMillin says. "So if you don't talk about your accomplishments, somebody else will be talking about their own in the competitive world out there.”

When you encourage other women to speak up about their achievements and try to create an environment where women feel proud of what they've done, you create a network of empowered women that you, too, can learn from and be inspired by. According to the survey, 83% of women have been inspired in some capacity by other women talking about their accomplishments. As Hirsch says, “The more women's stories we have in the world, the more we create a world that's ready for women to lead in all areas of our lives."

The self-promotion gap, like the gender wage gap, is not going to go away overnight. But the more women speak up about their accomplishments and make room for others to do the same, the better chance there is at an evening of the playing field.