Introverts and Extroverts

One time, I was talking with a friend of mine as we walked. He was talking about how sometimes he runs into trouble just "going with the flow" of the people around him. He found it really easy to see all sides of an issue and not stick to what he believed.
I recommended the discipline of going out into a field and being alone for a while, regularly. He responded "Oh no. No. Me alone with my thoughts is not a good combination." I said maybe that was all the more reason he needed to do it.

I'm an introvert. Completely. I get my energy from being alone. I'd even go so far as to say that I like it. It's more comfortable.
My friend is an extrovert. He likes being around other people and engaging with them. It's not that either of us can't enjoy the other thing, but it's not our natural state.

You see a lot, and I mean a lot, of articles and stuff in America about how to become more extroverted and less introverted. That's because people in groups tend to think that their group is "normal." But being extroverted, by definition, means you'll tend to form more groups. You never see introverts get together and talk about how great it is to be introverted. Why? Because we'd all just rather stay home. It's in the definition.

That's how being extroverted came to be seen as "normal," but it isn't normal for everyone. And it's definitely not all positive.

My friend from earlier suffers from something a lot of extroverts experience. But introverts most often don't have a problem with "knowing what they like" or "sticking to their values." Because when you're alone with yourself enough, you tend to think about what's important to you and why. It becomes a lot less confusing and a lot less stressful when you think it through.

I'm actually immune to peer pressure, which continues to blow the minds of all the extroverts I hang out with. They never believe me until they test it, but they usually give up pretty quickly.

Maybe if more people in this country were more comfortable with their own beliefs, they wouldn't freak out whenever anyone challenged them. I stopped freaking out when I realized "Wait, if I really know this is true (and I believe God is in control), why does it bother me when someone disagrees?"

And I think people are starting to realize this. That's part of why there's a craze in our culture of "find yourself," and "you'll be really happy when you find out what it is you want," and "look inside yourself." "Let it go!" Because all the most successful extroverts realize they're happier when they do a little introspection.

In the most recent Frozen movie, Frozen 2, (spoiler alert, by the way) Elsa goes on a magical journey to find the spirit of the Unknown that's calling her. Spoilers again, it's her. She's the destination of her journey. And for all us introverts, we're waiting there like "what took you guys so long?" I know the Unknown. I'm used to it. We're not our destination. We're our starting place.

So, if you're an extrovert and you wish you were more creative, less bored all the time, not so anxious, more able to do what you know is right when you're surrounded by other people, I'd suggest finding some alone time and talking about it. 






On the other hand, if you're introverted you don't have to give up that special part of yourself in order to be around other people. But I think I'll write about that later. God's will be done.