If you're a good person even when you don't have to be and it feels nothing good ever comes from it this is for you.

I was in the same boat a while ago. While I'm a lot younger (18) I hope I hit the mark for you with what I'm about to say.

I made 2 great friends in junior high (middle school if ur in the US) but we went to seperate schools later on. While we still kept in touch during the three years through FaceTime etc, it's still different. The start of highschool marked my period of loneliness. I made not a single friend during my 3 years, often walking around in a park during my breaks because I felt unwelcome anywhere. After all, I was friendless, so I must also by unwanted and worthless right? It makes perfect sense!

And you are completely right. To others, you are worthless. Even if you have skills and values, no one knows about them! You cannot present them either cuz ur awkward as fuck and if you screw up, you'll seem like a arrogant bitch on top of being an awkward loner.

The thing is, it's important that you stop fooling yourself embrace the fact you are trash right now because otherwise, you cannot change. What really gives you your value is potential, not who your are right now. Human nature by itself turns you into a lazy piece of trash that eats cheetos all day. It turns you into someone with no friends and no value. If you are trash right now, human nature is to blame! That is a double edged sword. It's a double edged sword because human nature is difficult to overcome. It's a double edged sword because it also means you haven't properly utilized your thinking, conscious self.

You really think the charismatic lady-killer in the movies or business magnates maneuver through social interactions based on intuition?? If there's anything I've learned over the years, it's that everything is a conscious decision. The way someone charismatic behaves was already decided ages ago when they first planned out their life, their personality/identity, their values. They analyzed their past interactions and experimented over an diver again until they saw a reaction they liked. Even if someone is so naturally charismatic and they don't need to plan beforehand, they would sure as hell be even more charismatic if they did.

It's difficult to go out and "experiment" because it guarantees repeated failure before success. After all, ur a blind bat before you get good. I can't tell you how to be brave enough to do so, so I'll just say what helped me:

"You have a responsibility towards your future self. Even if you don't want to live right now, that doesn't mean your future self doesn't. If you wanna die right now, who the fuck cares if you embarrass yourself a bit? Who cares if others dislike you? In your own mind, they already hated you anyways."

Even after I wrote this down on a sheet of paper and taped it to my wall, it took me months before I even dared to try something.

Another thing I learned over this Coronavirus quarantine is that if you feel worthless, it's also probably because you don't have many skills. Learn to do something. Learn to cook perhaps. Cooking is relatively low skill entry.

If you can't discipline yourself to learn something, write down what you do each day accurate to 20 minutes. When you write ur daily schedule down, it becomes apparent what you are doing with your time. When you are conscious of something, you can then begin to change. When you write something down, you can't fool yourself and say "I'm so busy man. "

I'm sorry if this isn't relavent. I'll probably move it to a related subreddit later but I'm on a phone rn so that's kind of hard XD

/r/socialskills Thread Parent