How to Overcome Shyness

Those who have known me since High School know that I am (and moreso, was) an extremely shy person. I would turn bright red if I had to talk in class, and I hated being the focus of attention.

As an example, my 11th grade English teacher held a socratic style discussion after we read a chapter of each book. Needless to say a nightmare for me. I ended up being too terrified to speak – not because I didn’t have anything to say, but because I was too shy. Invariably, by the time I worked up the courage to talk, someone else had said my point. I ended up looking dumber or lazier than I should have.

I have outgrown that a little, but still hate the feeling of being in the spotlight.

Ran across a quick article from the blog “Dumb Little Man” which puts out a few posts a week on life improvment. They are concise but informative. This week they had one on how to overcome shyness. One of the bullets really hit home:

Shyness is pride
Someone I respect a great deal once told me that ‘shyness is pride.’ What he meant was that shy people spend too much time worrying about themselves and how they look in the eyes of other people, when they should be focusing on what’s outside, trying to do a good job, trying to add value to the situation. This is brilliant advice – start thinking about others and less about yourself. In fact, everyone else is actually thinking about themselves, too. Nobody really cares about you. So stop being so self absorbed.

This is so true. I was so focused on not messing up, or looking dumb in front of others, that I would become introverted. Paralyzed too much to participate.

If you are shy or introverted, go check out the rest of the post – it might open your eyes a bit.