Admin Well-being Feeling Underappreciated?

[joelr]

Building and managing a forum can sometimes feel like an uphill battle, especially when you feel underappreciated or unnoticed for your efforts. If you're experiencing these feelings, it might be helpful to ask yourself a few questions:

1. What story am I telling myself? Sometimes, external factors like market conditions can impact the growth of our forums. Recognizing these can help regain some perspective and confidence.
2. Am I making unhelpful comparisons? It's easy to feel left behind when we see others seemingly progressing faster. Asking your peers or mentors about the qualifications and experiences that helped them succeed can shed light on what you might need to work on.
3. Is it just me? Understanding the broader landscape, such as how many others are aiming for similar goals and their success rates, can provide clarity. This could involve discussions with managers or even networking with others in your field to get a sense of typical career paths and advancements.

To reset your frame of mind and share your experiences:

• Have you ever felt underappreciated in your role as a forum builder?
• What strategies have you used to address these feelings and push forward?

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think it all depends on your goal and the complexity of it.

I see many forum owners setting a goal of big vanity metrics in a short amount of time. That's like someone who wants to lose 100 pounds in a month. It's likely not going to happen.

I think it all boils down to goals and the complexity of them.

Try to set a smaller or micro-goal that is more realistic to achieve with a consistent effort.

I'd like to get my blogging forum to 100 members by 2025. There is 24 members now. I'm going to continue my copywriting campaign on social media and encourage word and mouth and I feel like I'll likely get there.

I didn't set the goal to 1,000 because of the nature of forums. They're not as popular as they once were. It's easier to achieve 100 than 1,000 in the last months we have until 2025.

1,000 members can be an overall goal but segment your big goals into smaller ones to make it more achievable. It feels a lot better to accomplish things quicker rather than dwelling on that which takes a long time to accomplish.

 

[joelr]

That's like someone who wants to lose 100 pounds in a month.

I think this is a great analogy. Everyone wants to lose weight and look slimmer, fitter, sexier beach body 😆.

There are two ways of setting goals:
- I want to lose 20 lbs.
- I want to go to the gym 3 times a week for 45 min each time. At least one of those should be cardio.

The first is outcome oriented. The second one focuses on the actual actions to drive those results.

If we focused on the second kind of goal of the underlying actions and steps and objectives, then the first goal will naturally result. It's also more within our control of things we actually need to do, rather than what we're wishing for.