People often confuse introversion with fear and see it as being a totally unchanging facet of one's being. I'm introverted, and I used to be incredibly shy whe

People often confuse introversion with fear and see it as being a totally unchanging facet of one's being. I'm introverted, and I used to be incredibly shy when meeting new people and it was impossible to get me to do any public speaking in front of people. But I'm confident that my shyness and non-desire to be in front of people was a result of being fearful of what people thought of me and my yearning to not make a fool of myself as opposed to my being introverted. Perhaps there is a big overlap in those qualities though. One of the turning points in reducing my social fear came through being a waiter during college which both forced me to speak to people I didn't know. Plus it forced me to be around groups of people regularly. After college I was a teacher and am now very comfortable meeting new people and speaking in front of groups. Solitary pursuits still really energize me and social gatherings definitely continue to drain my energy which is able to be refilled with some solitude.