Communication confidence

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Ok. I am at best described as being a "shy" person. Because of that I have problems dealing with large groups and quite often lack the confidence to begin interactions with people. This is something that has been told to me as being the only real issue with my communication now. (Twenty-one years of blunders and screw-ups is bound to teach anyone what not to do )My question for WP is:

How do you increase confidence with initiating interactions?

Please give some positive feedback with this as I really need to know for what I am doing at the moment.

Well... my best guess would be to go somewhere that the people won't know you and practice. Don't do anything you know is stupid, the goal is to learn. So just try talking to people, and if you don't get along with people you probably won't see them ever again. It's possible that you will, of course, but it's also possible that you will be murdered by a ghost clown next week. Just have to deal with it. The point is, you can throw caution to the wind and screw up as much as you need with little or no consequence.

That said, don't hang around in one place bugging people for hours. They'll think your loitering or trying to sell something... you never know what people will think of.

>How do you increase confidence with initiating interactions

If you have a good reason for initiating, the results you hope to get can help push you through the fear, motivate you.

If you have some set ways of initiating, some clear idea of what you're going to say, that helps actually get started.

A key point for me is that being receptive and a good listener can help guide you through it if you make the effort to calm yourself and focus on the other person's nonverbal communication.