Talking to Everyone

Photo Credit: +Mitchell Wong

About a month ago, I read a piece from the   blog that made me change the way I approach meeting new people.

Now, normally I tend to be a little shy. I get really nervous when meeting others or engaging in conversation. Either I'm afraid of saying the wrong thing or simply making a bad impression, that I end up trying my best to avoid the situation as much as I can.

I don't necessarily see "shyness" as a problem but rather more of this small annoyance that I have to get over.  The article posted on Tiny Buddha had some tips to combat shyness so I decided to check it out to see what they were.

The best tip that I read in the article was simply, "Talk to Everyone." The thought actually scared me a bit. On my daily commute I see a lot of people and the idea of having to communicate consistently with others made me feel a little uneasy.

I finished reading the rest of the article and the other suggestions were also really good. That first tip though, stayed with me for the following weeks. Every time I had an opportunity to speak to someone, input a suggestion or offer an opinion, that first tip kept playing in my mind, "Talk to Everyone."

So that's what I did. Every chance I had I made sure to say something. I started off small from saying "Good Morning," to the neighborhood street guard. Then I went on to chatting with employees in local stores and even strangers on my school campus. During class I would now always say hello to the people around me and talk to them about different topics.

Little by little the "Talking to Everyone," became much easier. It really isn't as bad I once thought. So long as you are nice and polite people will accept the idea that you would like to communicate with them. It is very rare when people don't want to communicate, so now I always feel confident when being the first to say something.

That small step of "Talking to Everyone," has really made a difference in me. I'm still a little shy, but not as much as I was before. I realized that the majority of people around me love to engage and sometimes all it really takes is an opinion or suggestion to break the ice.

So that's a little piece of advice I thought I'd share. I really don't think that you guys are as bad as me when in comes to "shyness," but if you feel as though this approach might be helpful, try it out. Talking to everyone is actually quite fun and little by little the shyness will begin to break away.

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/overcoming-shyness-how-to-feel-more-confident/