3 questions to help you decide to run for office or not

Running for office is a big decision. It takes time, money, and energy—not to mention the downsides of being in the public eye and dealing with criticism from your opponents. If you’re thinking about running for office, here are three questions you should ask yourself before committing:

1. Is it important to you personally?

You have to be passionate about the issues you’d like to run on. You should have a good idea of what you want to accomplish or change in your community, and why it matters to you personally.

Do you want to make a difference because it’s important to your family? Do you care about a certain issue that affects people around the world?

If it’s all about making a positive difference for others including your family, and community then you’re on the right track.

2. Are you doing it for the right reasons?

You should be doing this for the right reasons.

You should be doing it because you want to make a difference and serve your community. Maybe you are a parent concerned about the future for your children. Maybe you have seen an area or community you love go downhill, and you wish to help. Maybe you want to do your part to keep your community on the right track. These, and many others are all great reasons to run.

You shouldn’t do it for personal gain, or because you have a singular issue you or your business could benefit from. If your intention is to get elected and do any of these personal things you’ll soon find out that running for office takes up a lot of time and effort—and most times there are no rewards at all personally (you won’t get rich!).

But, if you have good intentions there are endless gains for your greater community, which in my opinion is way more rewarding than anything you could do for personal gain in office.

3. Are you ready to work really hard and be incredibly selfless?

I grew up with a dad in the state legislature, and spent some time working for a state senator. You are BUSY ALL THE TIME. If you want to serve in elected office, you will be on call 24/7.

There is always some constituent issue needing attention. An event you have to attend. Elected duties you have to carry out. None of this is considering your family, and business obligations you have in addition.

People who serve in elected office get attacked daily by people who disagree with them whether it be with or without merit. Just another aspect of the job that can get hard.

If this is something that sounds like it could fit into your life right now, great! We need people like you to put their hat in the ring and make our communities better.

Running for office is a big decision!

If you have read this blog, and have a feeling you should serve—go for it!

This blog was meant to encourage you not discourage you from running. Everyone is scared to run, but if you have even a small feeling to run, you should. I was talking with a friend a while back that would make an incredible elected official. When I asked if she wanted to run one day she told me, “I don’t think anyone should choose to run. I think others should push you to run until you can’t say no.”

I think there are too many good people with thoughts like this. You are good enough to serve, and you should!

No one ever feels fully equipped to run, but everyone has something that they can offer that makes them uniquely qualified. Maybe it’s your story or experiences; maybe it’s just the fact that you are willing to listen and learn from others in your community who may know more than you do about an issue.

Regardless of where your willingness comes from, thank you for your willingness to serve! If you have made up your mind Vottiv is here to make running for office simple, and affordable to you. Go to vottiv.com and sign up for free.