New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: If you used to be socially awkward and shy, how did you improve?

Ask HN: If you used to be socially awkward and shy, how did you improve?
490 by dondraper36 | 523 comments on Hacker News.
Recently, I cannot help but notice how shy and socially awkward I might be at times, which is quite frustrating. To be fair to myself, I am not awful in social situations in that depending on the context I can be seemingly confident and calm, especially when I am among people I know and the context is familiar. When it comes to new people and places, everything changes dramatically. My voice changes, my posture changes, everything changes. I can start being awkward in all possible senses. The discomfort gets to the point where I blush and this physical state of vulnerability and self-doubt of course makes things even worse :) I understand that all of that relates to self-esteem and phychology in general therefore my question. It's common to advise hitting on the gym, which I just started doing last week. Funnily, the gym is the place where I last noticed my awkward behavior :) If you have managed to deal with that and improve in that regard, what is your success story?