[jansho]

Sigh, yes I can relate to that. Others here mentioned that it's mental gymnastics, and I would add that crucial to the strategy also is to develop a thicker skin to protect yourself. Because the truth is, it'll always stay with you, no matter how hard you try, so it's best to be content with getting embarrassed now! And hey, that's how you learn anyway.

I used to hate answering phone calls. Then one day an admin from my team left and suddenly I had to do customer services too. The first two days was just awful, it's not even worth describing here. By third day, I had mapped out a script to read out from (and my team weirded out). By third week, I'd known the script by heart, and can comfortable say hello without any sweat patches. And now I can take unknown phone calls civilly.

Practice and exposure definitely helps, with a dose of immunity to what others think :)