One of the biggest challenges I have faced over the past year has been finding a way to talk about myself. Not my elevator pitch about who I am and what I do. But what makes me unique, and what I have to offer that will add value to potential clients/current customers/the world around me. It's really hard for me to articulate.
I recently finished reading Peggy Klaus' book Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It, and she addresses all of these things, and more. Working through her exercises and examples has given be a fresh perspective, and also helped explain why it's a frustrating process for me.
My first problem is that I am never satisfied with my accomplishments, because there is always something more I could have achieved. There is always room for improvement! Whether it's in my nature or it's due to my upbringing, I tend to seek my weaknesses and errors, and dwell on the things that didn't turn out the way I imagined them. The solution to this is to honor all of the small steps taken towards a goal, even if I don't actually achieve the goal I set in my mind.
The second thing I struggle with is that I find myself rather boring. Perhaps it's because I live with me every day - but there aren't many things about my life that I imagine anyone else would find interesting. This is, of course, because we are raised to compare ourselves to others around us, regardless of their unique circumstances and their journey. My social media feeds are loaded with amazing photos of friends who visit exotic far-away locations, spend endless afternoons at happy hours with craft brewers or gourmet chefs or California vintners, or have adorable kids developing into fascinating small people. I have none of those things at the moment, and looking at my days I don't think of anything I am involved with as having the potential to be of interest to anyone. However, I have been to many beautiful places, and have lots of lovely people in my life. I have been blessed to be able to experience a variety of wonderful arts, sports, adventure, and leisure.
The third reason this is a challenge for me is because I have put myself in the situation where I have to be confident and brag about my accomplishments in order to convince people to hire me. My success in this endeavor literally depends on my ability to sell myself! Like I said, there is always room for improvement, and I am hoping that becoming more intentional about the messaging I share about what I have to offer will point me down a path of growth on this front.
