celebrating all the wins
Career

Celebrating All the Wins

Hello! It’s been a while, right? Thought I’d share a more personal blog post just to connect with you all and catch up. I hope this is something you can relate to. 🙂

I’ve been super busy these last couple of weeks, but I’M BACK! I don’t know about you, but when I’m busy/preoccupied with work (or school), I lose my creative flow. If anyone has any suggestions on how to combat writer’s block and help increase creative flow (even during busier times) please let me know!

Anyway, I just wrapped up a work project and it feels so good! Not only because we’re done, but I have grown so much into my role that I gained this newfound confidence in my ability. One of the struggles I faced in my first year at my firm is embracing the newness (I talk about that here), but newness can be scary and uncomfortable. Unlike other projects I worked on, where I join partway through or towards the end, I worked on this recent project from start to finish (which took about ~6 months).

While I’m definitely no pro at what I do and I still have a TON to learn, it’s extremely liberating to look back at the entire project and the final deliverable and say “wow, I was a part of that?!” Yes I did! All the hours of hard work and dedication to ultimately create a final deliverable that my team is proud of is HUGE — and that needs to be recognized. It’s so easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle but it’s extremely rewarding to retrospect on the impact I’ve had on my project and the growth I’ve achieved.

I had a senior manager tell me to write down what I do on a day to day basis so I can look back at everything I did and truly see how much I have grown. She told me to look at all the things I’m doing now and ask myself if I’m doing the same things as I did last year. Chances are, probably not. This is a sign of growth. It seems like such a simple task, but it’s truly a representation of my growth. Luckily, I keep a daily to-do list in my notebook (yes, I’m traditional like that) so I had a repository.

Flipping through my to-do’s notebook, I realized she’s right. These past few months, I had so much more ownership of the tasks I had and found myself increasing in autonomy. I was pretty much in charge of a set of documents to complete, managing all the documents (100+), tracking who is reviewing what document, and providing status updates of the overall project progress. While I had (and still continue to have) a million questions on the daily, I’m able to navigate my resources better and make decisions that I can present to my team to ask for their opinion on. I definitely was not that confident last year — a lot has changed since then.

Something like managing files daily and providing regular status updates may not seem substantial, but it’s those little wins that start to add up. At the end of the project, I had senior members of my team ask me to help work on the final deliverable, ask for my opinion on their questions, and ask me questions when reviewing documents. Every time I successfully answered their review questions was a win for me — I felt like I knew what was going on! With every challenge tackled, I felt my confidence increasing each day. I only hope for this to continue as I continue my professional journey.

Like the title says, it’s about celebrating all the wins – big or small.

I highly recommend giving yourself the opportunity to celebrate– or at least recognize– your victories, big or small. Are you a step closer to a goal? Did you learn something new? Did you do something to take care of your well-being? I’ve learned, to get through tough times or busy days, it’s extremely important to recognize the victories. I am definitely trying to make the active effort to do so moving forward!

Outfit Deets

Does anyone miss dressing up for work, because I do!? Although I’m not sure when I’ll be back to wearing cute work outfits, I got myself some new pieces I’m really excited about. I love this oversized jacket and leather legging combo — perfect powersuit! I’ve been wanting an oversized black blazer for a while now. I actually have a black blazer that’s not oversized (more of a traditional fit), but I prefer the oversized look more — and it’s perfect for wearing over sweaters now that the weather is cooling down! As much as I miss dressing up for work, little pieces like these make me so happy and I hope to incorporate into my everyday attire. As well, can we talk about how amazing these leather leggings are?! I used to have a pair about 10 years ago that got worn out and I FINALLY got a new pair!! I’m so excited to wear these everywhere — they’re so comfy!

Hopefully you enjoyed this personal piece!