What’s so great about being an Extravert?
Are you an extravert? Me too-and I love my extraversion.
Extraverts aren’t people who talk all the time. We are defined by being energized or stimulated by the outer world as compared to introverts who prefer the quiet and privacy of living inside their heads.
Extraverts can be the quietest ones in the room as we scan for things to capture our interest in the outer world, or we can be instigating a lively discourse. While we may be chattier than introverts, we may also be the ones to get our introverted friends and colleagues to freely open up and share all that great stuff in their heads.
We are inclusive
As extraverts, we like to check in with others to see what Little Cloudy  we think before we finalize our own thoughts, and we like to engage others in our activities and conversations.
We are great at getting things going
Extraverts are ‘fore-thinkers’, meaning we don’t wait until we know what we’re thinking or where we’re going-we just jump into the conversation or activity and start to explore.
To the introverted colleagues, extraverts’ thinking process may appear messy. But here’s the thing, extraverts show their thinking process while introverts don’t. Introverts are ‘after-thinkers’, meaning they do their thinking inside their heads and only share their thoughts after they’re fully formed. It’s the same process but introverts do it privately and extraverts do it publicly.
Extraversion is a Way of Life
I am an extraverted writer. As an extraverted writer, I like to toss out my latest interests to others to see what they know or what might come back to me to further my research. And true to my extraverted nature I check in with everyone before I begin to write–and oft-times meander into a run-on-sentence experience as I scan the outer world of people and things looking for just the right tidbits of information to stimulate my creativity.
Here I offer this ‘slice of life as viewed through the eyes of an extravert’ to help you experience the extravert not as an always talking ‘vert’ but as an always interacting with the world around us ‘vert’–and to show the symbiotic relationship between introverts and extraverts who value each other’s gifts.
A Slice of Life viewed through the Eyes of an Extravert
“The other day I opened an email from my introverted sister-in-law who shared a book, ‘Wheat Belly’, she thought I should look into for my research on ancient grains vs. modern grains. On her recommendation I jumped on to Amazon to view the book where I got waylaid by a mission statement made by the book’s publisher Rodale Press, compelling me to contemplate the usefulness of mission statements and start a blog post on the topic. When I returned to review Wheat Belly on Amazon I realized this fabulous reference was sent to me by an introvert in my tribe which led me to start this article on the quiet extravert. Flitting back to missions, I decided to check what I wrote on LinkedIn for my own mission statement when I saw an article recommended from a colleague that caught my attention–The Inspiration Paradox: Your Best Creative Time Is Not When You Think in Scientific American that I had to read and comment on before I finally returned to Amazon to download Wheat Belly to my Kindle. By now I was so excited by all the great stuff swirling around in my head I had to put it down and take the dog for a walk…leading me to contemplate that all of this was accomplished over a four-hour period of solitude without talking-and all Quiet books  because an introvert started me on my journey.”
Quiet Extraverts Stir Things Up and Wait
If you are an extravert, remember extraverts aren’t people who talk all the time-we are just as adept at get other people talking and engaged. You are defined by being energized or stimulated by the outer world as compared to introverts who are defined by being energized by the inner world. Your interests go far and wide, while introverts’ interests tend to be narrow and deep.
Like the juggler adept at getting a dozen plates spinning on sticks, as an extravert you are masterful at stirring things up and with very little effort keeping the energy going. You don’t even have to say much–just get the conversation going then sit back and wait for the results.
International speaker and award-winning author, Susan J Meyerott provides dynamic interactive workshops for people ready to better manage their work, life and health. For more than 30 years, Susan has been helping people lighten up and step over invisible barriers to change one step at a time. Contact Susan to schedule Myers-Briggs-based workshops to improve effectiveness, communication, teamwork and leadership in your organization.
