“I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,
I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

So let’s make the most of this beautiful day,
Since we’re together, we might as well say,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won’t you be my neighbor?”

Hi neighbor, I’m glad we’re together again….

I’ve been thinking a lot the past few weeks about Communities. How incredibly pivotal they are to every aspect of our lives. The community and neighbors you surround yourself with have so much impact on your own personal well-being.

I tell the teenager all the time, “The people you surround yourself with become molds for the person you become!” Not just family. Friends, co-workers, colleagues, fellow tweeters, the list goes on and on! We rub off on each other and an evolutionary shift takes place.

There are a few communities that have really been instrumental for me over the past few years and helped me grow:

• First up is the community of people that I rely on as a mom. My other mom friends who I can commiserate with over homework and PTA woes. Teachers who help me grow as a parent. School/community volunteers who exhibit self-less attitudes and remind me that for things to get better, someone has to step up!
• Next up is the community of people who know me well. Family members I may or may not see often, long-time friends who I can laugh with about ‘old times’, best friends who know what I am thinking and can read me like a book, and a husband who supports me in every way.
• Finally, there is my #AwesomeAdmin community. This one is hard to explain to people not involved with Salesforce. Through mediums like the Success Community, Twitter, and the FinancialForce Community Forum, I’ve met and forged bonds with some awesome people. We live all over the world and have incredibly varying backgrounds and demographics, but all of that is irrelevant to the simple fact that we love what we do and we love to share and help each other succeed!

Through these communities, I’ve learned to trust my judgment as a mom, not be so hard on myself (both as a parent and as a Salesforce Admin), take time for me (personally and professionally), and embrace the small victories because they add up into big wins!

When a community is not thriving and your neighbors are doing more taking than giving you sometimes have to pull up your roots. Making the decision to ‘move’ is hard, but sometimes necessary.

Does the community you live in look like mine? Have you surrounded yourself with the kind of neighbors that build you up and help you to be a better person? 

“Won’t you please,
Won’t you please,
Please won’t you be my neighbor?”