There’s a book that I have within easy reach, because sometimes I forget that an introvert life is not bad, it’s just different. I’m also interested in the fact that I sometimes feel like being extroverted these days. Not often, however, and I always need a lot of alone time to recover. This proves Introvert Advantage to be true for me. I have to gear myself up to be an extrovert, which also reveals just how much I am an introvert: I still try to fit in with the crowd and it will never, ever work.
The Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney explained to me exactly why I can’t fit in with the crowd. (I remember all those miserable years in school when I could never think of anything to say and would just freeze up.) I don’t get energy from the “madding crowd,” I get energy from being alone.
Unless you too are in introvert, that sounds like I may be the Unabomber. Trust me, I’m not. I just enjoy driving alone in the car, going to the gym by myself and not talking to a lot of people, staying home to read books, working as an entrepreneur from home. I am not completely comfortable riding in a car with a lot of people all talking at the same time, going to the gym with a friend (or even a personal trainer), going out every single day for hours just talking to people, or having a typical full-time or part-time job at someone else’s office.
This is not strange. This is an introvert. This isn’t me being crazy; this is what works for me. This is how I am inspired, this is how I get all my books read, how I write thousands of words a day, how I keep up with half a dozen client projects at a time, and how I make more money as a freelancer than as an employee. I like it at home. I like not having to fit in with other people’s plans and ideas.
It doesn’t mean introverts have weak backbones. On the contrary, introverts may be the bravest, most independent people you’ve ever met. Just because we don’t climb mountain peaks and hang out at the club doesn’t mean we aren’t doing something else with our time, or skulking in the corner while the “cool kids” are at REI buying mountain-climbing equipment. We just would rather have a day at home to create, complete our to-do list, and relax. That’s how I’m inspired anyway. And most introverts accomplish quite a bit in a day; way more than extroverts accomplish. But I’m not interested in having a contest (I would win anyway), I just want extroverts to understand how we differ from them (and not in a bad way) and I want introverts to stand up straight.
This book is my field guide to surviving in an extrovert world (which also happens to be the subtitle). If you think you may be an introvert, get it, read it, and thrive. And if you’re an extrovert, could you please live it up for me? You can do what I can’t. (I’m okay with that.)
Grade: A
{ 4 comments }
Spot on, again, Trish. I’ve always been viewed (and viewed myself) as an extrovert, but I crave the alone time, for writing, for organizing. Maybe I’ve been trying to be someone I’m not. Maybe I need to be okay being alone more, but I do get lonesome. Writing is a lonely world, isn’t it? Okay, back to it!
I think that writers may have to be introverts in order to get it done. That doesn’t mean you are an introvert, however. And a lot of very fine extroverts are successful as writers; they thrive on interaction and writing together (lots of YA writers, for instance). I know I am introvert, thus me writing in a group would make me feel ill and why writing workshops are harder for me than anything else.
You have options! Be authentically who you are and write from there.
Another introvert here, standing up straight and saluting my fellow introverts!
Salute to Meg! Thank you!
Comments on this entry are closed.