TL;DR - embrace it, unless it hinders your life - its a sign what you enjoy and don't enjoy. Long story: I used to be introverted and awkward, couldn't hold e

TL;DR - embrace it, unless it hinders your life - its a sign what you enjoy and don't enjoy. Long story: I used to be introverted and awkward, couldn't hold eyesight with strangers - was really afraid. It was so bad that I tend to get anxiety attacks whilst riding the underground train whilst being too close to people. In university and thanks to European slacking on alcohol consumption laws, I got super confident by having 3 shots of absinth and getting to go to talk to that girl at the bar which turned out to be a pornstar and it made a good story. It was kind of fake confidence, but really helped pushing through and I realised that it always resulted in new opportunities, conversations and serendipity. Later down the road I started putting myself into uncomfortable situations "intentionally". I would ask strangers for cigarettes on the street being afraid to get rejected, I asked a discount at Starbucks where there was none (thanks Noah Kagan), I went so far as to go and lie down on the ground in the middle of the street for people to just stare at me at disbelief (thanks Tim Ferris). Eventually once you push yourself out of the comfort zone, it becomes normal. When you train your brain muscle often enough knowing nothing bad happens you get used to the situations, conversations and even just being yourself. You also realise 99.99% people on this planet are insecure monkeys and whoever is running around and flashing their golden watches is actually more awkward than you. I later got a job in tech sales (WTF?!?). This pushed me even harder into conversations which were sort of forced. Its a script you learn and can apply later down unconsciously. I started even dividing people into various types based on behavior. Again, it becomes a muscle. However as any muscle, if you stop training it - it will probably go back a little bit, not to the extreme level though. In the end I realised I am still that weird nerd, that sometimes gets nervous around people and in many cases I prefer rather to stay home than go and socialise. But thats probably also part of adulting. Essentially, I started embracing the lifestyle around awkwardness - learning to code, reading comics again at 34!, digging into the rabbit hole of sci-fi book plots and just enjoying the more introverted activities that don't push me to go out and talk to people because it still drains me. I don't see anything wrong about that, I build the life around my personality - not the other way around. The caveat is that it still good to push yourself to improve because human situations are the ones that will define your life (salary negos, sales, dating). So if you can't flick that switch you will be held back but in the end it should be on your terms. EDIT: typos