Phone Anxiety and Fear Management

So, I figure I had to call Capri Pants...the only problem is I have intense phone anxiety. For some reason making calls is hard for me to do...not just to girls, but anyone I don't know very well.

I tried some of the sage advice out there and called up a good friend of mine, the Musician, to get into a talkative mood before I called her. I shot the shit with him for a bit. We had some good fun.

Then I called up Long Hair to schedule a date with her (Hell, I might as well call both girls while I'm at it). Calling her was pretty easy since I was so focused on calling Capri Pants. I got her voice mail though so I'll have to call her back later.

By now I was feeling pretty good. I was a little scared still but not so much. I called Capri Pants and we chatted for a minute or two and then I set up a coffee date for Sunday. She was pretty giggly. I wonder if she was nervous...

The thing I noticed is that calling Long Hair was easy because my fear was distracted by something I thought was bigger. So I think the way to work around this is to figure out a way to stack the deck so there's something bigger than calling a girl to worry about. Maybe decide that after you call a girl, you're going to march into your boss' office and ask for a raise. Or call her up right before you have to give some kind of important speech. Just decide to do something that you feel more fear toward...then act. This will distract your fear so you're not focusing so much fear on the other things you need to do.

Give it a try!