Overcoming Shyness

I now realise that when I was young, shy and busy worrying about everything – especially what other people thought about me – other people (some of them friends and some family) didn’t really ‘give a monkey’ and were too busy enjoying themselves to consider how I might be feeling.

As I reached puberty I became excruciatingly quiet and fearful. I walked behind my mother most of the time so that when we met people we knew, she took the lead in conversations and I would smile and nod appropriately. I used to look up from ‘under my fringe’ (a look I now associate with Princess Diana) and speak in a small mousy voice, if at all.

It seems I wasted a lot of time worrying needlessly but, fortunately for me, I somehow managed to change…..

I realised, gradually and painfully, (the details of which I will not venture into) that I had two clear choices: – adopt a more positive outlook to life and actively promote myself to others; or risk a life of underused potential, unhappiness and regret.

I did not want to become a resentful and envious person with little self-respect (I know people like that), so I set about learning how to become more confident.

In doing so I lost my fear of many things, including people.

I have realised over the years that we are all the sum of what we make of ourselves. We do not need to become the sum of what people make of us.

What other people make of us is none of their business!

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