When I started out overcoming my shyness and social anxiety years ago…
..it was really tough.
But I was extremely COMMITTED because I already had been fighting social anxiety for years without even knowing it (the social anxiety part at least.)
It was a RELIEF to find out that something called social anxiety had been identified.
I remember the day I read the description of what someone with social anxiety felt and thought like.
CHILLS went up and down my spine and I thought
“OMG – that’s me!”
Someone FINALLY understood.
So when I started on the path, I was 35 years old.
(I’m 40 now.)
I was in my old town where I grew up and no one was really left to hang out with when I moved back.
(I had to go back because my mom was really sick with a neurological disease, she passed away 9 months later.)
I had to start from SCRATCH.
I had to meet people and make new friends.
I felt like a stranger in my hometown.
But you see, I really wanted to test this stuff and after my first major social confidence crossover.
So I went to networking meetings which was fairly easy because people are looking to meet other people already (HINT).
It was a great place to practice social skills where people tend to be warmer.
Then I started going to bars and some clubs by myself.
That was freakin’ WAY HARD in comparison.
People aren’t always so friendly depending on the environment, so it’s a great place to test and upgrade confidence levels.
(Now I can do it with ease, even though it’s still not my favorite and I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea here either.)
There were nights I’d go out, walk towards the bar entrance, and it was like there was an invisible force-field in front of me.
And I’d go straight home.
That happened MANY times.
Sometimes with going to coffee houses, too.
In time, it got better and better.
Because I tried out new things, both inside and out with both my confidence and in practicing my social abilities.
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