I decided that the only way to get past it was to go through it. I just had to confront my fears.

So I set an arbitrary goal for myself. I was going to simply say “hello” to 100 strangers in one week. That’s it. This may seem ridiculously simple for some of you, but for a painfully shy person like I was, this was a terrifying thought.

I cut out a small credit card-sized piece of card stock to keep in my wallet and keep score throughout the day.  Every time I’d say “hello” to someone, I’d put a tick mark on the paper.  I still have this piece of paper as a sort of merit badge of achievement.

Now people can be shy for different reasons. Personally I was afraid to engage and interact with other people because I had an irrational fear that they would get angry at me for bothering them. Basically I was overly-concerned with their reaction.

My goal was simply to say “hello” to 100 strangers. They could react however they wanted to. As long as I said “hello,” it was a victory for me. This was important because it helped me start to separate how I act from how other people respond.

The first few times I greeted people as I was walking down the street, I was completely terrified. I forced myself to do it though, and lo and behold, I didn’t die in burning flame of humiliation and embarrassment.

After the first few times, things got easier. I actually started to enjoy the act of greeting others.  I said hello to people as I was walking down the street, as I was riding the bus, as I was waiting in lines, and and all sorts of events that I went to.

By the end of the week, I had 100 tick marks on my scorecard, I made friends with the old guy at the deli by my office, and I got a date with a rather attractive girl. Not bad at all.

But the real lesson that I took from all of this was to separate my actions from how others react. I felt much more confident and much less shy.

So if there is any sort of fear or self-limiting belief that is holding you back, the best way to get rid of it is to simply tackle it head on.

More on this next week… You’ll see how I managed to further pull myself out of my shell by intentionally humiliating myself.

I’ve been contemplating the direction of this blog lately.

I don’t really want to become “another personal development blogger.”  Not that there’s anything wrong with personal development bloggers.  It’s just that there are already plenty of great people out there doing a much better job at it than me.

I think what I would like to focus on instead are personal challenges.  Currently, I’m challenging myself to do the Tim Ferriss diet for one month and I am working to make money on the internet with affiliate sites.

I think it would be incredibly fun to have a blog full of these sorts of challenges and eventually do challenges collectively with a bunch of other people.  We could check in once a week (or whatever time frame is appropriate for the challenge) and share our experiences.

I still do enjoy writing about personal development, but I think it makes more sense for me to leave that to the big players.  I might write about it every now and again, but it will not be the only, direct focus of this blog.

Starting from here on out, I will shift to 3 blog posts per week.  On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

I’m currently doing two challenges, so I’ll post about the Tim Ferriss diet on Mondays.  I’ll write about making money online on Fridays.  And Wednesdays are currently open, so I’ll keep Wednesdays open for personal development until I get a third challenge.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions for a challenge, I’d love to hear from you.  Some things I am considering doing in the future are:

• NaNoWriMo –  Short for National Novel Writing Month.  This challenges people to write a 50,000 page novel during the month of November.  I really want to do this, but it will have to wait until next year.  Right now, I need to get some income…
• Polyphasic Sleep — By taking short 20-minute naps every four hours, you are supposed to be able to function better and need a total of less sleep each day.  I could have really used this during my thesis.  The first week or two are supposed to be total hell.
• Run a Marathon — Self explanatory.
• Survive in Nature — With nothing but my wits and maybe a few simple tools, try to survive in the wilderness for a set period of time.  (It would be very hard to blog about this one, but I’m sure I could think of something)

These are pretty big commitments, so they’re going on the back burner for now, but these are the kinds of things I’d like to do.  Perhaps if there is interest, I could release a PDF on my experiences and all the details of each challenge afterward.

PS:  I weighed myself yesterday for the first time since starting the diet.  I have lost a significant amount of weight, but I want to keep the exact amount a secret for the time being (to build up suspense for end of the diet).