If you someone who enjoys spending time reading a good book, can spend hours playing a video game or your favourite hobbies tend to be solo. Chances are you might be an introvert. Now that is not necessarily bad news, it is just your predisposition to how you go about recharging your batteries. Extroverts tend to want to recharge their batteries and find more meaning by spending it with others, introverts tend to can more enjoyment with more solo activities.

Just because you’re an introvert doesn’t mean you’re a hermit. Obviously you still enjoy social interaction and are inclusive of friends in your life. But how does an introvert go about improving their social skills.

You need to firstly reframe the way you see relationships. You need to begin to approach relationship building from the framework of what can I do for this person to make their life better as apposed to what outcome can I gain from knowing this person. If you approach relationship building and meeting new people from this mindset you will actually find that it becomes easier to meet people and the interactions will be positive in nature.

We need to realize that everyone is an individual. If we were all the same and all like the same things then life will be quite boring. The problem with most introverts is that they tend to stay around people that they feel comfortable with and never meeting new people. By meeting people who don’t think the same way that you do and who don’t enjoy doing the same thing that you do actually provide greater balance in your life and enables you both to be enriched with each others company. You can both learn from each other.

You just need to get out there. The best way to improve you social skills is to get out there. Sometimes this may take you out of your comfort zone but you will be able to grow from the experience. Approach new social situations as a challenge to improve your social skills. Join a social group, a club or even an organization and go along to their meetings or events. Over time you’ll actually find that your social calendar starts to fill up and your social skills become more adapt and proficient. You can then decide to attend those events that you most enjoy and continue to develop your new more extroverted life further.

At the end of the day improving your social skills is only going to enrich and improve your life. The people you meet will all have a story just like you have a story about your life. So why not get out there and meet new people.