Owning Our Wins

Why Women Deserve to Speak Proudly About Their Accomplishments

Before the New Year rings in, let's take this time to reflect on the 2025 accomplishments we're proud of.

The goal of this exercise is simple...as women, we are often taught to downplay our accomplishments—to soften the win, share the credit, or change the subject. But acknowledging your success isn’t arrogance. It is accuracy. Your story matters. Your work matters. And you’re allowed to say, “I’m proud of this.”

This year, I purchased my third investment property. It’s something I worked intentionally toward, and it means I’ll be able to retire sooner than I once thought possible. For a long time, I would’ve minimized that statement or followed it with a disclaimer. I’m done doing that.

For many women, talking about our accomplishments doesn’t come naturally. We’re taught—explicitly and implicitly—to be humble, to downplay our success, to attribute wins to luck or timing or “just doing our job.” Confidence is praised, but only when it’s quiet. Achievement is encouraged, but only if it doesn’t make anyone else uncomfortable.

And so, too often, we shrink our stories.

We preface our successes with disclaimers.
We soften our language.
We change the subject.

Meanwhile, the work we’ve poured our energy, talent, and time into remains invisible—sometimes even to ourselves.

It’s time to change that narrative.

The Conditioning Runs Deep

From an early age, many girls are rewarded for being agreeable, helpful, and modest. As women, that conditioning follows us into classrooms, boardrooms, creative spaces, and even friendships. We worry that speaking confidently about our achievements will make us seem arrogant, unlikable, or “too much.”

But here’s the truth: acknowledging your accomplishments is not arrogance. It’s accuracy.

You didn’t imagine the late nights, the learning curves, the risks you took, or the resilience you showed when things didn’t go as planned. Naming your success doesn’t erase anyone else’s—it simply honors your own effort.

Visibility Matters—for You and for Others

When women speak openly about what they’ve achieved, something powerful happens. We normalize success. We provide reference points. We give other women permission to imagine themselves in those roles, achieving those goals, building those lives.

Representation isn’t just about being seen—it’s about being heard.

Your story might be the one that helps another woman negotiate her salary, apply for the role she thinks she’s not ready for, or finally acknowledge that she’s doing a good job. Silence, even when well-intentioned, keeps the bar artificially low.

Reframing the Way We Talk About Success

One of the biggest shifts we can make is changing how we think about sharing accomplishments. It’s not about bragging or self-promotion for the sake of ego. It’s about clarity, confidence, and ownership.

Try this:

• Replace “I was lucky” with “I worked hard for this.”

• Replace “It was nothing” with “I’m proud of how it turned out.”

• Replace “I don’t want to make a big deal” with “This mattered to me.”

These small changes aren’t just linguistic—they’re mindset shifts.

Confidence Is a Skill, Not a Personality Trait

Some women seem naturally comfortable talking about their achievements. Most aren’t born that way—they’ve practiced. Confidence grows through repetition, reflection, and support.

Start small. Share a win with a trusted friend. Write down three things you’re proud of at the end of the week. Practice saying your accomplishments out loud without minimizing language. The more you do it, the less foreign it feels.

And remember: discomfort doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. Often, it means you’re unlearning something that no longer serves you.

Lifting Each Other Without Shrinking Ourselves

Encouraging women to speak about their accomplishments doesn’t mean we stop celebrating collaboration or community. There is room for both. We can acknowledge the people who supported us while still claiming our role in the outcome.

You can say, “I’m grateful for the team—and I’m proud of my leadership.”
You can say, “I had support—and I earned this.”

Those statements can coexist.

Your Story Deserves Space

You don’t owe anyone silence. You don’t have to earn the right to be proud. Your accomplishments—big or small, visible or behind the scenes—are part of your story, and that story deserves space.

When women speak confidently about what they’ve done, we don’t just change how others see us—we change how we see ourselves.

And that might be the most powerful accomplishment of all. Speaking openly about our wins doesn’t take anything away from others. It creates visibility, normalizes success, and permits other women to say, “I want that too.”

I’m proud of this—and I’m learning to say that out loud.

So let's hear it. What is it that you are most proud of accomplishing in 2025? I NEED you to do this with me.