Getting Through an Event You Dread
For the party, wedding or work thing you already want to get out of. It gives you an exit time, something to do with your hands and your mouth, and a definition of success you can actually meet.
Social Anxiety · Social Anxiety · Anxiety · 8 items · whenever you need it
The checklist
- Decide your leaving time before you go — Knowing you can leave at nine is what makes the first hour possible.
- Arrive early rather than late — Walking into six people is far easier than walking into sixty.
- Have two questions ready — People like being asked things, and it takes the talking off you.
- Find the job nobody wants — Pouring drinks or minding the door gives you a reason to be standing there.
- Take the break you need — Five minutes alone outside or in the bathroom resets more than pushing through.
- Let the silences belong to both of you — A pause is shared; it is not evidence about you.
- Skip the replay on the way home — The post-event audit is the worst part of the night and the least accurate.
- Count going as the win — You went; whether you shone is a different and far less important question.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it whenever you need it, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.