Do You Care About Your Community? Believe in Yourself

photo credit: Daquella manera

Part of being a good community administrator is believing in yourself. It’s always easy for an outsider, someone who doesn’t know what it means to manage your community, to say “look in the mirror” and consider how you could do better – without actually thinking of actual situations or moments. That’s too easy. Far, far too easy.

If you care about your community, believe in yourself. That doesn’t mean arrogance, it doesn’t mean that you’re always right, but it does mean that you’re trying hard and that you consider your decisions carefully and when you do something, chances are it was actually required. Caring is that powerful.

There is this train of thought that if someone else doesn’t understand you or doesn’t do the right things on your community, that it isn’t their fault, it’s yours. While may sometimes be the case and  you can always be looking to improve, do not allow that to turn into needlessly blaming yourself for the actions of other people.  People will take warnings the wrong way, people will not like having their post removed or edited, people will not like being told they can’t do something… that doesn’t mean that your actions are wrong. That doesn’t mean that you should change a single thing. Meaningful change doesn’t come from knee jerk reactions to singular events.  Meaningful change comes from witnessing trends and adjusting to ensure your community handles them in a consistent manner.

I’m constantly considering and self evaluating. I have this ball of experience that is always growing and I tap into it every day, in order to make the right decisions and keep things moving forward. I am not perfect. I make mistakes. I apologize when I do. But, I work incredibly hard to make those mistakes as few and as far between as possible. I have a system of checks in place, if you will, that force me to be deliberate in how I consider various administrative actions.

Do not get caught up in trying to blame yourself for everything. That should be reserved for people who don’t care. Unfortunately, it’s often the people who do care and care so much, that they beat themselves up. No! You deserve better. If you care – believe.