Susan Cain: Power Of Introverts
I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago, 10 Myths About Introverts, where I highlighted another interesting blog post that I had come across. Today, Erik Lindenius pointed me towards this great TedTalk from the author Susan Cain. I think her video is worth a watch, not just because I’m an introvert myself, but because this is important also on a societal scale.
(If you can’t see the video, try this link.)
I can very much relate to this. In group meetings, especially in school, I often did something else inside my head while the others talked and talked. If I knew the people in the session, and if I knew their agenda, then I had already played out the entire conversation in my head before even going into it. And afterwards, it always landed on me to do something with all the madness… sorry, information. (I even developed a method for surviving brainstorming sessions.)
What amazes me about my industry in particular, consulting on communications, is that so few expensive consultants take their time to think. Ask yourself, how many times a day do you stop what you’re doing to think real hard for at least five minutes? Or when presented with a problem, how many minutes do you take for deep thinking before making your decision?
If you’re too quick, chances are that you’ll think that there are no solution. When most people say that they can’t think of a solution, they really just forgot the ‘thinking’ part.
Have you ever spent one whole hour consumed by a single line of thought? It’s pretty damn hard and most people can’t even do it. But some of us have no problem with this. I have no problem focusing on my breathing and nothing else a whole class of yoga. My problem is that it is too easy and I end up adding challenges, like counting the seconds.
On that note, I think there’s something to be said about challenges, about outer stimuli. Introverts too love outer stimuli very much, because it gives us a wealth of information to process. But if you take away the processing, you take away the fun. And if nothing else, at least that should be respected.
