Every time you do something that’s hard for you, every time you transcend some personal boundary or cross some goalpost you thought uncrossable or work really fucking hard at something (even — especially — if you fail) or do something you thought you couldn’t do, it is an accomplishment, and it’s important to acknowledge it. Every time you receive a compliment and say “thank you” instead of “oh, it’s nothing”, you are striking a blow against a poisonous, toxic, and dangerous social model. And every time you do that publicly, you give strength to someone else who sees you do it, because by accurately valuing your accomplishments and achievements as accomplishments and achievements, you teach others that their similar accomplishments and achievements are things to be valued — and thus, by extension, that they are to be valued. And every time you see someone trying to downplay their achievements, especially compared against someone else’s, remind them that accomplishment is not a zero sum game: your achievement doesn’t reflect upon another’s, and another’s doesn’t reflect upon you. Measure against yourself. That’s the only standard that matters. And if you’re one of those people who are policing the social appropriateness of claiming one’s accomplishments and placing value upon them in public, just fucking stop it already.

Every time you do something that’s hard for you, every time you transcend some personal boundary or cross some goalpost you thought uncrossable or work really fucking hard at something (even — especially — if you fail) or do something you thought you couldn’t do, it is an accomplishment, and it’s important to acknowledge it. Every time you receive a compliment and say “thank you” instead of “oh, it’s nothing”, you are striking a blow against a poisonous, toxic, and dangerous social model. And every time you do that publicly, you give strength to someone else who sees you do it, because by accurately valuing your accomplishments and achievements as accomplishments and achievements, you teach others that their similar accomplishments and achievements are things to be valued — and thus, by extension, that they are to be valued.

And every time you see someone trying to downplay their achievements, especially compared against someone else’s, remind them that accomplishment is not a zero sum game: your achievement doesn’t reflect upon another’s, and another’s doesn’t reflect upon you. Measure against yourself. That’s the only standard that matters.

And if you’re one of those people who are policing the social appropriateness of claiming one’s accomplishments and placing value upon them in public, just fucking stop it already.