Learn to sell yourself – especially when you are a woman!
This week is International Women’s Day. This is a day where we celebrate the female community and all the great achievements of women over the years. Generally, celebrating achievements is something that many of us are not very comfortable with as we always feel that we might come across as bragging or arrogant. However, very often this fear results in women as well as men not selling themselves at all and therefore very often not being recognized. We need to lean to value and sell ourselves more – others around us go it as well, all the time.
As a first step for successfully selling ourselves, we need to be very aware of our achievements and the value we bring. This can of course be both in a professional and a private context. Very often however, we take achievements for granted and forget to value even small things we managed to do in a day. What can help here is to have a diary, where at the end of the day we write down one to three things that we felt were our biggest achievements this day. This way, we learn to consciously reflect and value things that we might just end up taking for granted.
Another way is to regularly tell ourselves why we are remarkable beings. We don’t do this nearly as often enough as we should. Every single one of us has something special and remarkable about themselves such as helping other to grow or just being a good wife or husband in a healthy marriage. However, even in hard times it is good to tell ourselves that we are already remarkable for managing to get through those and dealing with failure. So, we can be remarkable both in positive and in negative times. We just must see it and then celebrate it.
Once we become aware of our self-value and consciously recognize all the amazing things we have achieved so far, our self – confidence will experience a massive boost. Having a strong self esteem and being confident are fundamental when we successfully want to sell ourselves to others. We cannot sell ourselves and make other see our values if we do not love ourselves in the first place. Accepting and even learning to love ourselves as we are with all strengths and weaknesses is essential to get to the second stage of selling our value to others.
Women are especially hesitant to talk about their achievements and sell their abilities. As an example, when a man reads a job ad, even if he fulfills only 50% of it, he will likely apply. A woman will often only apply when 100% of the criteria are fulfilled. This shows a difference in perception of self-value and confidence.
Selling ourselves in facts has nothing to do with bragging or coming across as arrogant. Especially in a professional context, everybody does it and should do it. Only when we talk about our achievements and are proud of them, will other recognize them as well and help us achieve our goals to get where we want to get to. We therefore should start to step into the light and celebrate great work that we did not only as a team but also as an individual person. Be proud of yourself, you deserve it, as be sure, everyone else around you are selling themselves as well to get to their achievements. The earlier you start therefore, the better. If you have some value to contribute do it, speak up and be proud of yourself, without feeling guilty of taking the limelight. You deserve it and have every right to enjoy it, whether male or female.
