the fastest way to get better social skills (no joke)
Added 2024-08-19 07:56:27 +0000 UTCexperience. but where and why? how?
i'm not even going to waste your time on this one because it's so important, and often overlooked.
get out there! get a job in retail or hospitality, join a new club or team, go to a new cafe by yourself, go for a nice walk and have a chat with a stranger, don't be afraid to ask for things like directions or a to hold the camera.
challenge your anxious beliefs, your negative core beliefs. (also a side note, a good trick for social anxiety is eye contact, the worse thing to do is avoid eye contact, that will make it worse usually)
not only will this help you tame your anxiety, but it will also teach you a lot about yourself that you didn't know before, as well as others. although it didn't fix everything for me, when i dived into customer service (having borderline agoraphobia) i was bloody terrified, but let me tell you, i felt amazing afterwards, it changed me forever all because i put myself out there- i did scary people stuff.
it showed me that it wasn't so bad- i didn't atomise or get shot by the cringe police in the back of the head.
i would be lying to you if i said it would be easy. i had strangers yell at me, dropped glasses on tables, broke plates, made REALLY bad mistakes, and felt like quitting almost every single friday night (shout out waiters/bartenders), but the harder it was, the more i learnt and improved, the less anxious i felt.
although this stuff about listening or talking in groups is good to have, you'll make so much progress by just jumping into the deep(ish) end.
