November 25, 2016
Interview with Dr. Laurie Helgoe, author of the book Introvert Power
Mike Carruthers:
Believe it or not introverts make up about ½ of the population and yet…
Dr. Laurie Helgoe:
Our society is so programmed – get out there be with people when we take 2 seconds to think about it no ’s not the whole picture.
Dr. Laurie Helgoe, author of the book Introvert Power, says being an introvert is not something to fix. For 50% of us it’s who we are.
For one thing we have well developed solitude skills. In our society we talk a lot about social skills which are important but ultimately we spend a good portion of our lives alone. And introverts I think are more comfortable with that – it is their comfort zone to kind of pull back and reflect on things. So I think that’s a huge advantage.
Introverts are not necessarily anti-social they just don’t need or want as much social interaction as extroverts.
For a lot of us introverts who are quite social part of the fun of going out and being with people is that we get to go home and feel that cozy feeling of being away from people.
Dr. Helgoe suggests that introverts start to question this notion that being an extrovert is somehow better.
I always long for the day when I tell somebody I’m going to a party and they ask me, “Well, why – weren’t you really looking forward to a quiet night at home?” – to not automatically go there to the assumption that the extroverted choice is the better one.
