{"id":38766,"date":"2014-03-06T18:05:41","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T00:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=38766"},"modified":"2021-09-25T19:37:23","modified_gmt":"2021-09-26T00:37:23","slug":"the-helicopter-jumpers-guide-to-talking-about-yourself-10-ways-to-share-your-accomplishments-without-sounding-like-a-jerk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/money-wealth\/career\/the-helicopter-jumpers-guide-to-talking-about-yourself-10-ways-to-share-your-accomplishments-without-sounding-like-a-jerk\/","title":{"rendered":"The Helicopter-Jumper\u2019s Guide to Talking About Yourself: 10 Ways to Share Your Accomplishments Without Sounding like a Jerk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vintage<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: This a guest post by John Corcoran.<\/em><\/p>\n

Have you ever met someone whose personal story just blew you away?<\/p>\n

My friend Tom is one of those guys. A West Point graduate, Tom spent a few years in a U.S. Army special forces unit where his job was to parachute deploy into warzones from helicopters.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right — his job was to jump out of a perfectly good helicopter<\/i>. And that\u2019s not all. While he was still in the Army, Tom wrote two books and founded a boutique publishing company.<\/p>\n

What a jerk, right?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: Tom is actually a nice guy. If he wasn\u2019t such a nice guy, I\u2019d probably hate him.<\/p>\n

But his background is so incredible — it so blows my coward butt out of the water — that it\u2019s hard to imagine how he can talk about his background at all without coming off as an insufferable braggart.<\/p>\n

In reality, Tom is actually quite modest<\/a>, which is part of the reason I like him.<\/p>\n

The problem for guys like Tom is how he can share his background in a way that doesn\u2019t come off as bragging.<\/p>\n

In other words, one of the most interesting things about Tom is that he\u2019s a combat veteran who got paid to jump out of helicopters, but he can\u2019t always talk about the thing which makes him most interesting without alienating the person he\u2019s talking to. It\u2019s kind of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don\u2019t situation.<\/p>\n

Tom\u2019s not as different from the rest of us as you may think. Even if you didn\u2019t do a stint in the U.S. Army as a helicopter jumper, almost everyone has something interesting or memorable about them which makes for good cocktail party fodder. Yet social norms tend to prevent many of us from sharing these great stories out of fear of alienating people who might think we are trying to show off.<\/p>\n

Brett has previously written about how the world belongs to those who hustle<\/a>, but even if you are a successful hustler, the next question becomes how can you be a hustler and talk about your successes at the same time? In this article, I am going to offer 10 tips for how you can become more memorable by sharing the stories and experiences that are most interesting about yourself, without coming off sounding like a jerk and a blowhard while you do it.<\/p>\n

In other words, I believe there is a better way — a way you can talk about your most interesting achievements without sounding cockier than The Situation on spring break.<\/p>\n

Why You Should Talk About Your Accomplishments<\/b><\/h3>\n

You may be wondering at this point why we should even care about talking about ourselves. Well, as Forbes<\/em> wrote last year<\/a>, today’s landscape makes it much more difficult to get your message across:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe average American hears or reads 100,000 words<\/a> every single day. Studies<\/a> dating back decades have shown that 80% of what we learn is gone within 24 hours. That makes it much less likely that your message is the one that sticks.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By talking openly about our accomplishments, we have a greater chance of being remembered and not forgotten.<\/p>\n

Communication consultant Peggy Klaus says the fear of coming off sounding like Gordon Gecko denies professionals the opportunity to explain to clients the value they provide. The author of Brag: How to Toot Your Own Horn Without Blowing It<\/i><\/a>, Klaus says that the entire notion of self-promotion is excruciatingly difficult for many professionals to embrace, even if they know it is critical for their own survival. \u201cSo ingrained are the myths about self-promotion, so repelled are we by obnoxious braggers, many people simply avoid talking about themselves,\u201d writes Klaus.<\/p>\n

Here are a few additional reasons why you should talk about your accomplishments:<\/p>\n