I know this sounds like a very depressing and ominous post, but stay with me for a moment. I was reading something recently about the importance of coming to terms with the idea of death, and the idea that when you eventually get to the end of your life you don’t want to be left with a mountain of regrets about what you could have, should have, and might have done during your lifetime. Think about this a little. If you’re anything like me, you might have already spend two decades or more battling with social anxiety. Think of all the opportunities you probably missed out on over that time because your inhibitions were holding you back from taking any type of risk in social situations.
The one inevitable thing in this world is that we are all going to die in the end. Do you really want to get to the end of your life full with regret about never doing anything about your social anxiety and never truly LIVING LIFE? I’ve been thinking about this lately. Every day I spend with social anxiety is another day wasted and another day that I am passing up on other opportunities. I’m finding that this kind of thinking can really help when it comes to motivating yourself to tackle social anxiety. One of the biggest problems for all of us is procrastination, I believe. Let’s say you decide to say hello or start a conversation with one new person every day for the next week. How often have you made a goal like this and failed to follow through in the moment when your mind tells you that you’re too tired to practice that day, the person you were going to talk to doesn’t look friendly, or you don’t have time to stop and talk? In my case, countless times.
I’m starting to think that the key is changing your frame of thinking. We all have a finite number of days on this earth. The benefits of overcoming social anxiety are undeniably huge, and I believe it can be done. So why procrastinate for even one more day? Social anxiety is a nasty intractable problem, but if you become absolutely determined to tackling it NOW and doing some things that take you a little out of your comfort zone, think about how much happier you are going to be in 20 or 30 years time when you are looking back at your life.
Now that wasn’t too morbid was it?
