Celebrate everything: How to build your career with confidence

What kind of new habits do you want to develop in the new year? Do you want to clean your home more, or perhaps spend less money eating out? According to career coach Michelle Carrizosa , we should all add one more goal to our list: celebrate more.

“Sometimes we’re not used to celebrating, or we feel guilty for celebrating ourselves,” says Carrizosa, who works with first-gen and female professionals of color on building confidence and setting career goals.

In this week’s edition of The Starting Line, I spoke with Carrizosa on how celebrating our wins can make us more confident, both in our personal and professional lives. 

Don’t neglect the small stuff

Many first-gen professionals downplay their accomplishments or bulldoze over them in favor of bigger professional goals, Carrizosa says. 

“What I’ve noticed with fellow first-gens is that we’re always going, going, going,” says Carrizosa who immigrated from Mexico to the United States at 18. “We forget that all of the things that we're doing are a big deal.”

Carrizosa admits that she had a similar mindset when she was launching her career. Even after she landed a position as a program manager at Amazon, and later launched her own business, she struggled to acknowledge the hard work she put in to get there. Today, she says she encourages all of her clients to pause and celebrate, whether they’ve received a long-awaited promotion or a thoughtful compliment on a presentation. 

Keep a daily ‘win list’

Taking a few minutes every day to write down your wins can transform your career and build new confidence, Carrizosa says. But many professionals aren’t used to celebrating so frequently.

“In the beginning, it doesn’t feel natural,” Carrizosa says. “It feels like another chore that you’re doing. But eventually it becomes second nature.”

You can start by keeping a “win list,” which can function as a key visual reminder of all of your efforts and accomplishments as you move through your career, she says. These lists can also help you rethink what it means to have a win.

“I think that society loves really big wins, like when someone goes from being really poor to working in big tech,” Carrizosa says. “But there’s so many gems in between that help us grow.”

Celebration is key to confidence

You build confidence when you acknowledge your unique background and how it’s helped you get to where you are today, Carrizosa says. First-gen professionals often struggle with this. 

“A lot of clients come to me and want to be a different person,” she says. “It’s almost like they want to have a different background because it may be easier for them to achieve that career goal.”

Whether you’re the first in your family to graduate from college or the first to immigrate to a new country, it’s important to remember that your lived experiences are important and can set you apart in positive ways.

“Use not just what you have on paper, but also a little bit of your personality to craft a sense of ownership,” Carrizosa says. “That’ll actually make you way more confident about your goals, and [help you] achieve them faster.”