Don’t Be Shy

After my last post which gives tricks to use when you forget someone’s name, a good friend and I got into a heated debate.   Like me, my friend is shy, and she believes her shyness leads her to forget people’s names.   Me on the other hand, I credit my shyness for my ability to remember names.  Here are our arguments:

Shyness leads me to forget names.
When faced with meeting new people I often get quite flustered.  This causes me to forget everything they said, including their name.  In fact I often forget what I said also!  

Shyness helps me remember names.
I often feel uncomfortable when talking with people I don’t know well.  Forgetting someone’s name would make me feel even more uncomfortable.  So I remember names.  

I long held the belief that shyness was the reason I was so good at remembering people’s names, and I assumed that other shy people were the same.  Of course now I realised that shyness can cause the opposite as well.  Shyness can affect us in different ways.  Always take into account how your shyness affects your life when taking steps to deal with it and/or overcome your shyness.

 If you experience shyness – do  you remember names or forget them?