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Practice. Open so many sets that it's as natural at talking to a friend. You don't get nervous talking to your friends do you? Well a stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet!
Yes I do. It's THAT bad!!
See, the thing is, i'm usually very quiet, so when I do open my mouth it's like Silent Bob talking in Clerks. There's a lot of pressure there, so what I say has to be important otherwise i'll be ignored.
I do find though that once i'm on a positive-conversation roll I can talk to people more. If someone makes fun of me, calls me out or rejects me I go back into my shell and that's it for the rest of the day.
You need to work on your inner game then. Don't put pressure on yourself like this. Just because you haven't said anything in a conversation in a while doesn't mean that when you do finally talk, it has to be something Socrates would be proud of!
If you're worried about talking to your friends, then why not go practice on complete strangers! They'll probably never see you again, so who cares what they think! If you say something silly, who cares! What are they gonna do, knife you for bombing a joke?
If somebody does call you out for a bad joke, or insults you, you have to just let it go. For example, YOU'RE A FUCKING PRICK.
There, I just insulted you. Do you actually care what I think? Probably not. I don't know you, I've never met you, you're probably a really nice guy. Why should you care what some guy says on an internet forum? If somebody does that in real life, again, what difference does it make? Are they gonna physically attack you? Are you gonna die? No. Try and build a strong frame by having in your mind the fact that you are a likable, good, friendly person. People just need to get to know you better. If they want to judge you and insult you, it's their loss.
But to get people to really know you, you have to GET OUT THERE and start MEETING PEOPLE!
As a final note, if you're getting insulted by your friends a lot and it's hurting your self esteem,
maybe it's time to find more fun, positive friends!
Cheers, but that last bit, I absolutely hate hearing that as advice. my mum always says "get some friends!!". It's not that easy. Once you have your social groups it's hard to change, because other people see you with others and they judge. It's hard to talk to someone, let alone transition to forming a bond that would continue. It's like pickup, but for dudes instead. Which is hard due to the 'gay' connotation.