How do I stop avoiding networking?

You know it matters, and you avoid it anyway. That gap between knowing and doing is not laziness. Usually it is discomfort. Networking can feel awkward, self-serving, or just draining, so you find reasons to skip it, and the cost adds up quietly over the years. It might help to drop the word networking altogether. What you are really doing is meeting people and staying in touch. You do not have to work a room or sell yourself. You just have to be curious about others and let them be curious about you. Most useful connections come from genuine interest, not from strategy. Pick one person this week, someone you already respect or would like to know, and reach out with no agenda beyond a real conversation. That is all. One message, one coffee, one honest exchange. You are not becoming a different kind of person. You are just letting the connections you would naturally value have a little room to grow.