[Swannie]

Great.

You've realised what you need to do. Action.

You've stared the ball rolling by posting on here. Now go out and *do* something. Ideally something where you interact with people. Martial arts or partner dancing classes are great. They are usually set up to take beginners into a beginners course, so you aren't alone on your new journey. They, or similar activities, build confidence, will get you out talking to people and are a great vehicle to start with.

Forget the 2 hours a day of personal development reading etc. for now. It sounds like you don't have strong frames of reference to hang the ideas on. Until you do, you'll get frustrated that you have all of this knowledge, but don't know how to use it. You create huge expectations for yourself. Best to keep the expectations small and simple. That doesn't mean they can't be huge in scope, but one or two small detailed steps at a time. Don't try to fill in too many details of what you expect yourself to achieve,

It is all too easy to "read" and think you are taking action. You are doing what Steve has recently called your opening game. However if you only stick at the opening game, you're not getting very far.

I think a lot of people get a lot of value from doing the intellectual work of where you want to be in 3 or 5 years time... the Covey inspired "what would you like people to say about you at your funeral in 3 years time - a relative, a close friend, a senior person in your company and a someone from a community group". Sounds like you have identified some things you feel you lack... you need to identify what fills those gaps and visualise it clearly.

Though where you are at the moment, I'd expect to come back to that very regularly.

It's okay to be in your head. It's good. A lot of people don't think stuff over. However a lot of people never leave. The world is outside, not inside.