Self-promotion/bragging

[JohnnyBlaze]

No, I'm not trying to stop talking about myself; I want to know how to start doing it.

 

I've known that I've had this problem for some time now, but I was somehow able to push it to the back of my mind until recently. How do people talk about themselves? I know it's one thing that I'm incredibly bad at, and I'm fairly certain that it's affecting my social life. I know I've lead an interesting and enjoyable life thus far, but to hear me talk about it, you'd think that I haven't done anything notable since I was 20 years old!

 

It recently came to light upon my return from a three-week trip to Australia. It was a trip that I was dreaming about for over a decade now and it lived up to the billing; I had a fantastic time and enjoyed every minute of it (except when I had to get on the plane to come home). However, when anyone asks me about my trip, I tell them all about the cities and how fantastic they were, but the words "I" or "me" very rarely come out of my mouth. This happens when I talk to close friends as well as casual acquaintances, so it's not just an "I'm not comfortable with you" scenario.

 

While searching the forum for threads on this topic (so that I wouldn't double-post), I found an old one called "Say Nice Things About Yourself" (http://www.loveshack.org/forums/t184378/). Even though I posted there, it wasn't my own opinion that I posted. Someone else told me that they liked my eyes; even in a thread designed explicitly for self-promotion, I still couldn't do it! Note: for those who read ahead in that post and are too young to remember, the "I'm good enough..." line was from an old SNL sketch.

 

I think that my close friends have come to accept it by now, but I'm equally sure that it impacts my future relationships, as it's hard to convince a woman that you are even remotely interesting when you don't talk about anything that you've done. I must be doing things right otherwise, because a bunch of my friends talk about how they wished they could do some of the things I've done, but I just can't figure out how to talk about myself.

 

So how do I become a little more narcissistic?

[sumdude]

Practice, talk to your dog or cat. Heck talk to yourself.