About two weeks ago I was aimlessly scrolling through LinkedIn in hopes to increase my SSI by finding something to interact with or share or motivate me to get out of the slump that it seems I’m not alone in this summer. Somewhere along the way, I read a post about why we need to stop saying “I’m sorry” and what to say instead. At that moment, I decided to stop living those words on the screen (and was too busy thinking ahead to “like” or save the URL).
During the time since, I’ve found that saying “excuse me” when bumping into somewhere in a crowded arena, “thanks for waiting” when I’m running late, or “do you have time for a question” when needing to talk to a co-worker have produced a happier me. The guilt I had before isn’t completely washed away, but it’s definitely not as ringing in my ears as it was when I spent my days apologizing. I’ve been more productive and have even seen growth in a few other areas of my life. These ears are slightly more in-tuned to when others apologize for being themselves, too – and it makes me cringe. We’re all worth so much more.
I’m telling you this story of learning to stop the sorry because for earlier this I was going to drop in here and a few other spaces where I have a presence online and apologize for my semi-silence this summer. Instead, I’m here to put it out there – I plan to keep aiming to live unapologetically me, bringing my whole self to my work, family, and online.
And what does that have to do with being an Accidental Admin? Well…
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- Sometimes we admins don’t know all the answers. Sometimes we need to do a search, think about the best solution, phone a friend, or outsource the stuff outside of our skillset {these are all things I’ve done in July}. It doesn’t mean we don’t have our superpowers, it means that we know how to trigger those powers with the world around us and that is okay.
- Sometimes we really do want to live in our Trailblazer hoodies, super soft t-shirts, and Einstein socks with no shame that we got them as swag as user group events or Dreamforce instead of wearing “business” attire. I don’t know about you, but I create my best process builders and flows when I wear my Salesforce “I crushed it” shirt I got after earning my Admin Cert.
- Sometimes enhancements take longer than you expected because you are working on ways to make the whole system better and don’t want to rapid-fire deployments– quality over quantity!
- Sometimes we need to focus on our personal development and other things on the calendar have to wait. With an increasing demand for Salesforce talent in the next 4 years, now is the time to be getting badges, keeping certificates current, and being involved in local user groups without fear of what case or change is being “held up” by an hour or two of you taking care of you.
This is just a start to some of the things I’m giving myself some grace on in my professional life. I’ve found myself slowing down, thinking, and aiming to deliver higher quality work than ever before without being sorry for it taking time. It’s hard to look back to that mom who seven years ago didn’t know too much about Salesforce but was digging her feet into learning everything she could about it because she really didn’t have any other choice. Getting from there to here has been a journey, one I should celebrate with no regret. And that I will, being unapologetically accidental.