[Onward2wards]

I am pretty much reinventing myself on many levels right now. Does anyone have any books or websites or services they can recommend for practical change in the following areas:

Social Interactions:

* Reducing shyness and becoming more socially outgoing / proactive;
* Managing social anxiety triggers / defenses (such as catastrophizing in situations where there is a lot to lose if you don't perform well socially);
* Getting better at persuasion and negotiation;
* Recognizing and managing people who are "playing social mind games", such as mild intimidation, guilt tripping, defending an irrational point of view, attempting to gain "social rank points" by putting you or others down, this kind of thing.

Identifying and Leveraging Core Drives and Preferred Thinking Styles:

We all have psychological traits and preferred thought patterns that can be leveraged to our advantage, IF we know them and know HOW to apply them better. For example I have identified drives towards curiosity, novelty seeking, finding out why things work (more in a social and life rules sense than specific mechanical or electronic things), and a need for closure / completion as being very strong drives of mine. I also tend to like to think metaphorically and link ideas together.

I'm looking for books / articles /anything that helps a person identify core drives and styles of thinking, and come up with creative ways to apply them better to daily life.

I know that improving my skills in these areas would be enormously beneficial on many levels. Thanks for any responses.

[Sunflower123]

I don't have any advise for you but I wanted to lend my support and wish you luck in your endeavor.

[NeedHaldol]

Check out these 2 books by Kay Redfield Jamison:

"An Unquiet Mind" and "Touched with Fire"

Great reads, helped me a lot.

Concerning social interactions--check out the Charisma on Command videos:
How To Stop Shyness in 60 Seconds:

Bruce Lee's Insane Charisma (I had to watch this--love Bruce Lee!)