A couple of weeks ago, I published a post on networking when weather happens. But what about life?

You get sick. Your kids get sick. Your car breaks down. A client demands extra hours. Your best client quits suddenly. Or life just gets you down.

All of these things can get in the way of reaching out to touch your contacts. As I was writing this post, one of my clients called to tell me about a shift he had made in his thinking. A couple of his deals were taking longer than expected, and he was going to get paid later than he had been counting on.

That got him down. He lost a lot of his momentum. But when he called me, he’d realized he was letting adversity interfere with his goals, and what he really wanted to accomplish. So he called to tell me that he was out of his funk and heading to the office to get things done and make stuff happen. Good for him!

It’s normal to let adversity get in the way. We all do it (myself included). Recognize what’s going on and find your way out of your funk. My client journaled about the experience, and that gave him the clarity to recognize what was going on.

What’s not good is letting adversity keep you down for long. If you’re sick, take time to get well. But then get back to work. If your kid is sick, it’s a distraction. Get help if you can from family, but do what needs to be done. And then get back to work.

If you have to miss a meeting or other appointment, remember to communicate. I’ve been left hanging more than once by someone who had something happen and forgot to call me. Okay, things happen. When your husband suffers a heart attack, you’re probably not thinking about who you need to call to reschedule. Understood. But those events are rare and extreme. Keep people in the loop.

What if you are one of those people to whom something always seems to happen? It’s not normal to always “have something come up.” If that happens for you, get help. A coach or a counselor can help you recognize the underlying causes and get you out of them.

Trust is one of the biggest factors in building relationships. Being off your game can damage trust. Once damaged, it’s much harder to get back. Do what you need to do to stay on your game as much as possible. When life sets you back, let us know. But get back as quickly as possible.

Tags: communication, Relationship building, reputation, task management, time management

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Time and Task Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.