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Last week I shared a story about a woman attending a new networking group and it not being quite what she expected. You can read it here.

Let’s go over first question: Would you do anything differently?

First let’s back up and look at what was happening even before she walked in the door. She was nervous and thinking about all the things she could be doing if she wasn’t going to the event.

This is pretty normal. You’re nervous about something and another part of your brain wants the uncomfortableness to stop, so it gives you something you can easily use as a reason to not do the uncomfortable thing.

The problem with this is it gets us stuck up in our head and that can make it more difficult to connect with people.

One thing you can do differently before you walk into an event is take a deep breath and picture something that brings you peace or calm (a person, place, thing, animal or color – whatever works for you).

You know what that does? It pulls you out of your head and into your heart. It helps you connect with people and worry less about all that other stuff waiting for you later.

It’s important to do it before you walk into the room because it’s difficult to remember to do it after you walk into the room.

When you do it before, you walk into the room with a different energy and people notice.

And when you walk in with this energy – things like the hostess not being sure there is a group, the group being much smaller than you anticipated or realizing the one person you know isn’t there – the surprises don’t throw you. Your brain doesn’t jump to the best excuse it can think of (your ever growing to-do list) to get you the heck out.

Have you noticed a difference when you (or someone else) takes a moment to take a deep breath before a networking event?

Share in the comments below.

My immediate thought for this article was to share something about how to plan your year or how to stick to that plan.

And then I remembered what my Facebook and LinkedIn feeds look like – not to mention my inbox!

It seems that everyone is posting around these topics.

It makes sense, it’s the beginning of a new year (heck, I’ve done it).

And I generally read the articles and pull from them what works for me (I recommend you do the same, you don’t have to follow each outlined step if it doesn’t work for how you work!).

Also, I’ve had at least two conversations this week with people around having the best intentions to jump right into work this week and accomplish a lot. Only to realize that they either need a break now that the holidays have passed or they need to relearn the habits that they had mastered before the holidays.

Wherever you are this week – diving right in or slowly easing yourself back into the water – know that it’s OK!

You are exactly where you need to be right now. Evaluate what worked and what didn’t and make small adjustments next week.

And I’d love to know which article around planning your year (or sticking to your plan) resonated most with you. Share in the comments below (I’ve shared mine there!).