I used to think bragging was bad. That it was arrogant and was evidence of an overly-developed ego.
That idea was reinforced growing up. The message I got was that it was better to appear humble and not make a big deal of your achievements. The underlying Greek superstition was that if you talked too much about something good, you were going to give it the evil eye and everything would go to hell in a hand basket.
I've always been such a good student that I carried what I learned through most of my adult life. What that meant in my career was that as good as I was externally promoting my value, I wasn't as good internally in the companies I worked for. In my naïveté, I believed what had been ingrained inside of me from childhood: that I didn't have to. My value would be recognized. I would be rewarded without having to point out why. Plus, I was a woman. Bragging was something men did. Nice girls don't brag.
I can almost LOL reading that line back to myself.
My opinion about bragging changed 10 years ago when I met Regena Thomashauer. Bragging, in her book, is a celebration of who you are and what you create. It's owning those milestones, big and small, and allowing yourself to physically feel the full effect of what you've accomplished.
The Internet is full of so many people touting and promoting themselves that its easy to see why bragging is still seen as a bad thing to so many.
But when you brag from a place of truth and not made-up hype and gobbledygook jargon, it lands differently.
You get to feel your worth.
You're reminded that you actually have accomplished an awful lot -- even though you were not taking the time to notice.
You get ready for more.
It's not easy to do in the beginning, but like so many exercises, the more you practice, the better you get.
This post originally appeared on www.joannetombrakos.com