Introverts Living Under The Extroversion Ideal Are

A Widely Held, But Rarely Articulated, Belief In Our Society Is That The Ideal Self Is Bold, Alpha, Gregarious. Introversion Is Viewed Somewhere Between Disappointment And Pathology.

Introverts, In Contrast, May Have Strong Social Skills And Enjoy Parties And Business Meetings, But After A While Wish They Were Home In Their Pajamas. They Prefer To Devote Their Social Energies To Close Friends, Colleagues, And Family. They Listen More Than They Talk, Think Before They Speak, And Often Feel As If They Express Themselves Better In Writing Than In Conversation. They Tend To Dislike Conflict. Many Have A Horror Of Small Talk, But Enjoy Deep Discussions.

I Worry That There Are People Who Are Put In Positions Of Authority Because They're Good Talkers, But They Don't Have Good Ideas. It's So Easy To Confuse Schmoozing Ability With Talent. Someone Seems Like A Good Presenter, Easy To Get Along With, And Those Traits Are Rewarded. Well, Why Is That? They're Valuable Traits, But We Put Too Much Of A Premium On Presenting And Not Enough On Substance And Critical Thinking.

The Emphasis Is On Community, On Participating In More And More Programs And Events, On Meeting More And More People. It’s A Constant Tension For Many Introverts That They’re Not Living That Out. And In A Religious World, There’s More At Stake When You Feel That Tension. It Doesn’t Feel Like ‘i’m Not Doing As Well As I’d Like.’ It Feels Like ‘god Isn’t Pleased With Me.’

Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Gandhi — All These Peopled Described Themselves As Quiet And Soft-spoken And Even Shy. And They All Took The Spotlight, Even Though Every Bone In Their Bodies Was Telling Them Not To.