What does selling yourself short mean?
Selling yourself short means you don’t give yourself the credit or recognition you deserve. It can mean not speaking up for yourself, downplaying your abilities and talents, or not aiming for something higher than what you think you can achieve.
Why does selling yourself short matter?
It matters that you know when you’re selling yourself because you could be unnecessarily holding yourself out back from opportunities that you deserve.
This can affect your life is so many ways:
- You earn less because you think you don’t deserve a raise.
- You screen yourself out of a job or internship because you think you’re not qualified.
- You don’t share your skills and talents because you think you need to be hyper genius level before you share it.
Self-awareness is the beginning of your solution.
The more you recognize when you are selling yourself short, the easier it becomes to fix the problem.
What does not selling yourself short look like?
This can mean having more self-confidence, setting higher goals for yourself, or asking for help or support when needed.
If you find yourself procrastinating a lot or struggling with how to manage your time management well, it may be because deep down you don’t believe you can achieve anything.
Remember, just because you sell yourself short does not mean you’re humble or polite. It might even come off as humble bragging.
Sometimes, selling yourself short is a way to people please.
But what’s crazy is that doing this to gain others’ approval could actually lead to the opposite effect because others may think you’re humble bragging.
Selling yourself short can also come from fear of taking risks.
But remember: there is no harm in taking risks and a lot of success tends to come from taking those risks and pushing yourself out there.
New things could trigger selling yourself short.
Struggling to get a job.
Feeling like an imposter at a new job who others will soon find out and then you’ll be kicked out.
So to make it, you stay under the radar and sell yourself short whenever opportunities come up.
This tends to happen to students right out of college.
But even after years out of college, some still struggle with this habit.
“It’s worse out there and I won’t have a shot”
That’s the thought that goes on and on in your head.
Now, it’s completely human to sell yourself short the first few weeks or months of getting used to a new environment. Or job.
But it’s never okay to continuously sell yourself short when deep down you know you are worth more.
What if you feel you should sell yourself short?
What if you’re wrong?
What if you could:
- Review your skills
- Polish your storytelling
- Practice your elevator speech
- And share some of the badass things you’ve achieved?
What if doing one or any of these actually works?
What if you could land a job or have your salary jump.
Or you land a dream job.
Know something else that’s even more powerful?
It’s looking back and seeing that you proved your limiting self wrong.
What if you ditched selling yourself short and did something impossible. To prove to yourself that you’re done hiding.
In the grand scheme of things you truly don’t really know.
And from the way companies are set up, most are experts at making you feel like you’re not worth a dime and won’t get anything better out there than what they’re offering you.
That’s why unequal pay is still a thing.
And why people who don’t negotiate efficiently get lower pays.
It’s messed up but that’s the world.
We can complain and remain victims. Or take charge of what you can control. And do something
On a few occasions, the companies that low ball you appear right because maybe you’re completely starting a career from scratch and they took a shot.
But these are rare occasions.
The rest of the time is all tricks to ultimately underpay you.
The reality is this:
Most companies are out to get the best possible version of you at the cheapest price. Then turn around and say “it’s market rate”.
They may have succeeded before.
But don’t let anyone do that to you forever.
The ball’s in your court to stop selling yourself short.
It’s time to get something going.
- Tighten your resume
- Apply to more jobs
- Flex your interviewing skills
You may need to follow tips to stop feeling overwhelmed if the thought of changing feels scary.
But whatever you do, make a move to change.
Because you just never really know.
You just might be one move from jumping to an okay place to becoming another employer’s “employee we want so bad”.
For real, look deep within.
You, my friend, owe it to yourself to seriously stop selling yourself short.
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