Social Anxiety
Throughout my childhood, I've been an anxious person, especially in social settings. I would get hyperaware of myself and how I was being perceived by others and would often feel like I was not handling the situation well. So, my first instinct was to remove myself from the situation and do something that was more comfortable for me. But this avoidance behavior prevented me from experiencing a lot of things in life.
So, when that self-realization hit me, I decided not to run away from social situations and instead, try figuring out a way around dealing it in a different way.
There's this saying - If you’re willing to suck at anything for 100 days in a row, you can beat most people at most things. So during the past year, I made it a point to put myself in different social situations, which I usually avoid. I learnt a lot about myself and gained new perspectives as well. Although it may seem counterintuitive and even scary at first, it is far better to face social anxiety face-on and through gradual exposure to different social situations, you become better at handling it.
I've come to realize that everyone has their own unique path to success. We can steal some ideas from others (like all Software Engineers do😉) and tweak it, but ultimately we have to create our own playbook.
Professional wrestling has been a major influence on my acceptance of this reality. In many ways, it's a metaphor for life and career. Although it's scripted, wrestlers have to constantly reinvent themselves to stay relevant. Even after they win the championship, they can't rest on their laurels. They have to keep the story going.
Starting out as rookie, you won't get any attention from the crowd. You need to showcase your skillsets - in-ring and mic skills and make that initial connection, to make the crowd stay invested in you.
Someone like Seth Rollins, started out as weakest member of the Shield. But he had great promo skills, that he could get the crowd behind him. When he separated out from Shield, he just had to add few more moves to his repertoire, which catapulted his career to a different level.
On the other hand, we also have Roman Reigns - touted as next big thing, when he made his debut. But he was literally booed out of the buildings, when he came out of the Shield for the solo run. Then gradually, he was getting paired with others, who were able to complement his skillsets, which made the overall product better. In his current stint, he is paired with Paul Heyman, who has a bigger pull among the crowd. He is continually growing under Heyman's presence and is well on his way to becoming an all-time great.
Chris Jericho is my all time favorite when it comes to reinventing himself. He has played various gimmicks - each with its own face/heel persona, different catchphrases and it just amazes me, how he connected with crowd organically with each of his gimmicks.
Just like in pro-wrestling, in any career, we don't rest on our successes. We are always working and continuously improving as we are in it for the long-haul.
I still have a lot of work to do to become a well-rounded individual. But I'm committed to the journey and I'm happy with the progress that I made in the last year and looking forward to continually improve myself..