I do talks and speeches to large audiences. I jump up and down, gesticulate and enthusiastically deliver messages on stage. I coach lots of people – from athletes, artists, executives and people off the street. People see me as a highly extrovert personality who loves being in the spotlight and love talking to lots of people.
When Anette got me to answer 20 questions designed to determine if a person is an extrovert or an introvert, I ended up scoring 85% introvert. And it fits perfectly. I am an introvert.
I love being in my own company, doing my own things without interference or external chatter, noise or direction. I love it to bits. Writing books or articles, programming, creating music or digital art, poetry, drawings, stargazing with my telescope or tinkering with my calculator collection. This gives me energy.
While I also love doing stuff on stage and coach people, it takes energy. But I do love that I get exhausted. Thing is – the things that gives energy is my introverted activities. The stuff that cost me energy is my extroverted activities. I still love doing them, but I need my introverted activities to keep me from burning out. It’s just how it is, really. And I like the mix.
I do not fit in the classical introvert category of thinking a lot, planning carefully, keeping a personal distance to others, etc. I’m an impulsive, anarchistic introvert who don’t mind people getting deep under my skin. Bah, the further I try to pin it down, the harder it becomes – almost like Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. Maybe trying pin people down by labelling is both an unhealthy and futile activity. I believe people should remain fluid – much like Bruce Lee once said, “Be water, my friend”.
Geir Isene - uncut 
“The stuff that cost me energy is my extroverted activities. I still love doing them, but I need my introverted activities to keep me from burning out.”
My idea is that when we interrelate with others, much of the time we do so from the standpoint of the ego – which is simply the identity which has been created over a lifetime (or more than one) and is not necessarily a negative beingness. An extrovert is considered by the culture to be a positive thing, whereas a classical introvert is considered to be a negative beingness – even though it is also a matter of relating to others from the ego-identity.
However, if you are being energized by your so-called introverted activities, I would imagine that at those times you are not being motivated by the fears and ambitions of ego. Rather, you operate more like a being in a natural state of interest in existence. You flow with it – like water.
In fact, this is could be a definition of Operating Thetan.
That is very interesting and also revealing.
Good to know.
Hey Geir,
I like that. Sometimes tests are BS, like the Personality Test in scientology. Labels can be not true, even positive labels like the bridge to total freedom.
I probably fall in line with you.
Your post reminds me of the movie called “The Natural” with Robert Redford and Glenn Close. There is a scene in which Robert asks Glenn, if memory serves me correctly, something like have you remarried? And Glenn replies No, I am comfortable by myself.
The back drop is that Glenn’s child is a big fan of “The Natural”, the baseball player, and it turns out the child is the son of “The Natural” when the two were married, a story line twist. Great flick if you like baseball, love, drama & conspiracy in a movie.
Cool 😀
Labels like introvert and extrovert are never quite exact because we are all such individuals. The book The End of Average by Todd Rose is a real eye-opener about that subject. Many things in our society are based on averages and labels and that causes huge problems and injustices.
Cheers,
Jerry
Excellent comment. Thanks for the pointer to the book.