Patience in Your Approach

Follow us on Twitter! @agentspayforwrd

I like to get in a daily dose of exercise. Last week I pushed myself a little more than I should have and pulled my calf muscle.

On Monday, it wasn’t that bad, and within a couple of hours after my morning routine the pain went away. I forgot about it, and on Tuesday I got back on the treadmill. The dull pain came back. Again, it subsided a short time after my routine. I got back on there on Wednesday and Thursday.

About ¼ of a mile through my run my body screamed for me to stop; though, I pushed myself through the pain. Once I set my mind to something a semi truck can’t stop me. Of course, that attitude has its up and down sides; though, I'll save that for another blog. I made it to the end of my run; but I paid for it, and I’m still paying for it.

For the first few days, I soaked in some Epsom salt, and over the last couple of days, I have been icing. I suppose I could combine the two, but I haven’t gotten that brave yet. Slowly but surely my calf is getting stronger.

When you want to connect with other people, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. Start off slow, feel the person(s) out, determine if you can be of value to one another, and approach that person(s) in the same way you would want to be approached.

And please remember that just as you always have to account for your daily physical activities, thanks to Web 2.0 you are also always accountable for how you conduct yourself with possible clients or business partners. If you injure your reputation, you could pay for it exponentially. Taking a few extra moments to assess the situation, determine the value of the relationship, and then move into it gradually will pay off dividends.

Patience in your approach will keep you from injuring your and your businesses reputation.

If you want to connect with me, you can follow me on Twitter or connect with me on Facebook

Erick

Just Ask

Follow us on Twitter! @agentspayforwrd

Several years ago a former employer informed me of one of my weaknesses. I don’t like to ask for help. Sometimes I approach tasks in different ways than most people and my process is difficult to explain. Other times, I find it takes more time to communicate what I’ve done, where I am in the project, and how to go forward with it, than it does to just do the job myself. Now, when I am put into a new situation, in which that or any other weakness may hinder my overall goal, I find someone who can hold me accountable to achieving my objectives. That accountability comes in different ways, depending on the circumstance, but the trick is to never try to be a one man show.

Throughout my life, I have discovered that when I am upfront with the right people (remember, I said the right people) about my weakness, those people are wonderful at holding me accountable, not allowing my weaknesses to get the best of me, and thus allowing my strengths to shine. In a recent position I held, I communicated with my employer on almost a daily basis my successes and my failures, he asked me what roadblocks I saw in front of me, and what he could do to help me overcome those roadblocks.

Recently, I began hosting my site on a non- WYSIWYG (the link defines it) platform. For the past year I had been able to take care of making the necessary changes to my web site myself; though, when I switched to this non-WYSIWYG platform, and uploaded my website, the results were not what I wanted. I called the host company, and they informed my that my coding was a mess, but they also informed me that that was an issue they could not help me with (I hadn’t paid them enough and I couldn’t afford any more). Being the frugal person I am, I decided to learn HTMl and fix the problem myself. Well, my knowledge of HTML extends as far as being able to downsize social media snippets. It took me a few weeks to admit that I was in over my head, but I finally bit the bullet and asked for help.

Now, I am at the mercy of a friend who said he’d take a look at it and fix it when he had a chance. He’s doing it as a favor to me, so I must practice patience. To be honest, I want to fix the problem, but I need to recognize my weakness. At the same time, because I reached out to another friend of mine, due to my dwindling client list, I will speak with her today about taking on one of her clients. I believe both of these people offered to help me, because they realize that sometime success means paying forward what someone else paid forward to you.

Sometimes, I wonder what opportunities I missed during my early adult life because I refused to ask for directions, but I don’t dwell on it. I just move forward. Now, in my early thirties, sometimes feeling not much further ahead than those a decade younger than me—in some ways even behind—I continue to press forward. I’m better today than I was in my early twenties at finding people who know more than me and can help me to overcome my weakness, but sometimes I just like to think I can do everything myself.

In the end, I think one of the best ways to connect is to recognize our weakness, find those people who can help us overcome our weakness, and ask them for help. I believe people respect people who realize their limitations, yet don’t allow those limitations to limit their successes. I believe one of the best ways to connect with people is to realize that we may be ugly ducklings within certain contexts, but sometimes it just takes the right flock of swans to help us realize our true potential.

Until next week, Keep connecting,

Erick