What to do about being shy...

If you are shy and introverted, my feeling is you’ll be less likely to run your mouth off and say stupid stuff, but more likely to have awkward silences. However, along the same lines, you probably think about things a lot more before the situation occurs, so can plan ahead in detail: the timing, the opening line, what to say in case of silences etc. Think of it like having to give a 2 minute speech on a topic… it’s hard to do so off the top of your head, but if you’ve had the opportunity to think about it and some preparation it becomes easier to manage. If you’re able to focus on achieving the task at hand, you won’t have time to worry about being self conscious.

I don’t think you can ever completely get rid of shyness… but what you can do is to ‘pretend’ to be an extrovert. Initially, just feign the confidence: act how you would if you did have confidence. Thinking about how you would change is the first step -soon, you’ll have that confidence for real.

Jam it back in, in the dark.