I'm in exactly the same boat. 40 years old and hate phone calls. But recently I've started to learn that the reason I hate them is because it always feels like

I'm in exactly the same boat. 40 years old and hate phone calls. But recently I've started to learn that the reason I hate them is because it always feels like I have to "prepare" for them and that's something I'm putting on myself. two things have started to change the way I think about them: 1) being in a call centre job where someone made it policy to stop reading the ticket before calling. this made it feel less important to have all the answers before calling and taught me that my preparation was only effective about 30% of the time. it also taught me how to politely stall or think out loud - the person on the other end in almost all cases is fine with the fact that you are human and don't know the answers immediately. 2) when I left that job I found my way into a completely different role, but one where my manager was a big proponent of making calls when things weren't working. For example if you've sent email after email waiting for someone, pick up the phone and call them - it triggers a completely different response. It's like they remember you're another human and not just a task to be done. You can quickly clarify any concerns or questions they have, and it genuinely helps move things forward. Couple this with lesson one, and not overthinking what I'm going to say it's made a big difference. I still hate calling, but between those two lessons I've become much less hesitant to pick up the phone because it can really change the course of a relationship or interaction.