This is always the answer

I’ve had a big project on my to do list for about 2 months. I know it needs to get done and it should help reach out goals, but its around building an email program through another team and it literally has 30 steps for each email and I need to create over 150 emails.

Emails at my company are no small task. They are super manual and take so much longer than they should. It's safe to say I HATE EMAIL projects at work. I always have. I’ve worked really hard to be past the email execution part of my career. I’m all in around the strategy and testing plans, but pushing all the email buttons makes me want to poke my eyes out.

This project landed on my plate because the person who owns email is out on leave. They will come back and I’ll gladly hand it all back to them, but for the next few months, it’s all me.

This project has been looming over my head for 2 months and is seriuosly stressing me about. I know it has to get done, but I don’t want to do it. Then last week in a big team meeting they called me out and asked for a project plan update. I knew it would happen sooner than later, but it just doubled the stress.

I thought a lot about this and asked myself, who do I want to be? How do I want to show up at work? Am I the type of person that has integrity and honesty or do I focus more on looking good and giving people what they want? I knew the answer so when I decided to show up from integrity I simply told the truth.

I send an updated project plan to my manager, but also sent the most honest email of my career. I admitted that I dropped the ball and owned up to it, but also told him why. I admitted to hating email, but knew that I still had to do it.

It felt so amazing to just be honest and own up to it. I’ve been stewing and trying to hid that I’ve not worked on it for weeks. Today I just told the truth and while I still have to do the work I feel so much better. Showing up as your genuine self is always the best way to show up because what other option do you really have.

My manager has not responded yet and it might backfire on me, but I believe honesty is always the right answer.

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