REMEMBER THE TIME you could not think of anything to say to
person sitting across from in that little café or across conference table? You stammered when they looked your way. They smiled at you, but still, there was no way to reach out - and you lost yet another chance to make a good contact.REMEMBER THAT PARTY, when you were standing off to one side by yourself, and other people were stealing brief glances at you? Still you couldn't think of right things to say.
REMEMBER LEAVING THAT MEETING? Just ahead of you was person you really wanted to meet and get to know. You could not quite summon up courage to approach. They walked away into night and out of your life.
REMEMBER THE EXPERIENCE of uttering a sentence, then stopping and realizing that it wasn't exactly what you meant to say?
BY FAR THE MOST TERRIFYING BARRIER to developing relationships with strangers is learning to talk to them. Making first contact is sometimes fearful. Even thinking of approaching a new person makes you break out in a cold sweat.
YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE? How did things get like this, you wonder? It's because family and peer groups ripped from you at an early age innocent social adeptness of young. The bullying and being "cut down to size" that passes for socialization scarred your psyche. The fearful result is that you are not just shy, but gun shy. But, all that can change. It can be accomplished.
CAN THIS ALL BE CHANGED, YOU ASK? The answer is - absolutely yes - because need to grow is instinctive in human spirit. Additionally, self-improvement is proven to be not only confidence building, but therapeutic. In fact, failure to do so creates distress and forms of neuroses.
