At a recent book signing, Sheri, an introverted training manager, told me she holds onto an image from nature to comfort her when she feels overpowered by extroverted team members.
As a proud introvert, Sheri relates to the great blue heron. This bird will stalk prey slowly and deliberately. They are solitary or small-group foragers. While the geese are loudly squawking, or doing what geese do, she thinks about the blue heron and it gives her a sense of peace.
I mentioned this in my recent newsletter and received some interesting reactions. Here is sampling:
From Bob Cady: ” Read your newsletter and enjoyed your jottings. Keep it up. The Blue Heron story reminds me that each of us believes in the stories that feature US. Isn’t it the truth. The eagle is shaking its head about that slow old bird. No wonder he’s so thin. Doesn’t eat much…the ‘tortoise and the hare’ is supposed to be a fable about sticking to it and relentless pursuit of goals. The Intros love the tortoise. We are supposed to reject the hare because it is reckless and thoughtless. However, each has its good and bad points, as we all do. That Blue Heron…..is just doing its thing. The extroverted, fast acting eagle also has a nature….The Heron is not, after all the symbol of our country. In most of the stories you read, the character that is the quiet, introverted, slow, low voiced speaker when the President needs someone to solve the world crisis, is the one chosen to lead the exercise….”
From Kathy Greider: “Thanks for the great blue story — made me think about when I worked in an office. I always surrounded myself with as much nature as possible (plants, sea shells, round beach stones and lots of photos) when I was upset I would find myself rubbing the shells and stones to calm down. It always worked — and still does….Thanks for sharing this — maybe it will help others.”
I would guess that millions of dollars have been spent this past year on time management books and training programs. We all seem to want to know the answer to managing the chaos around us. Continue reading the rest of this article...
“Much of my work as a virtual assistant involves social media these
days. Initially, this was much easier for me to handle as an
(extreme) introvert. Strangely enough, I find that as friend counts
climb and the volume of online communication grows, I react with the
same sense of overwhelm, stress and exhaustion as I do to live or
phone communications. Have you heard this from others?”, she asks. Continue reading the rest of this article...
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