Do These Little Things If You Want To Be Truly Happy

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I Am An Introvert And Here Are Some Common Scenarios In My Life.

As a blogger, being an introvert can be both empowering and restrictive in equal measure. While I am often indecisive and reserved when it comes to selecting the types of content to publish on my blog, for example, the medium enables me to talk openly about the issues I experience in everyday life. More specifically, I can use my blog as a platform to connect with other introverts and hopefully help them to effectively manage a number of social scenarios.

With this in mind, here are eight typical scenarios that all introverts should be able to relate to. Hopefully, you will be able to recognize the situations and find solace in the fact that you are not alone.

1. Introverts feel lonelier at social events than they do when they are by themselves.

While we must all become accustomed to our own company at times, introverts are often at their loneliest during social gatherings. From informal, after-work meetings to impromptu interactions with long-lost friends, those of us with an introverted mind-set often become lost amid small talk and gradually become isolated from the rest of the room. The main reason for this is that we introverts tend to crave deep, one-on-one conversations, rather than trying to compete for center stage amid a gaggle of shouting voices!

2. Introverts make for the most inept party hosts.

Similarly, you would be hard-pushed to find a more unsuitable party host than an introvert. This instantly throws introverts under the glare of the spotlight, where they are required to meet guests and socialize with people outside of their immediate, trusted network. Such discomfort can quickly turn into panic, especially as unexpected guests turn up and you resort to spend your time anxiously policing the behavior of others rather than socializing.

3. Introverts magically disappear in group conversations.

If you belong to the band of introverts who constantly try to immerse themselves in group interactions, you will be accustomed to a brief period of promise followed by sudden disappointment. While you may enter a social setting and quickly try to socialize with others, for example, your inability of engage in small talk will ultimately cause you to lose the attention of others and gradually fade into the background. Cue a period of harsh introspection, as you magically disappear from the group’s conscience and become a peripheral figure.

4. Introverts either struggle to think or over-think in social situations.

Life as an introvert is one of extremes, as you fluctuate between being unable to think in social scenarios and over-analyzing every chosen word or topic for conversation. In terms of the former, introverts will know that it is almost impossible to think within a group, as endless small talk and chatter disrupts their thought processes and prevents them from processing topics of conversation. As they become anxious and even keener to make an impression, however, they visit the other extreme and over analyse every potential contribution to the conversation.

This filter ultimately creates doubt and confusion, meaning that introverts sit silently on the sidelines while the world passes them by.

5. Introverts dread a ringing phone.

I myself am not a huge fan of phone calls, usually because they are either made by customer service reps or family members wanting to engage in idle chit-chat. Either way the sound of a ringing phone usually triggers a sense of dread or apprehension, which will probably strike a chord with all introverts out there. This will usually force me to ignore repeated calls, until I summon the will to return them (at least to numbers that I recognize). The irony of this is that I also hate making calls too, so this creates an all too familiar cycle of anxiety and procrastination!

6. Introverts are often under-appreciated and under-estimated in the workplace.

As introverts we are often under-appreciated in the workplace, primarily because we are misunderstood by employers. An often overlooked characteristic of introverts is that they are motivated and energized by internal thoughts, as opposed to extroverts who thrive on the energy of others. This type of introspective approach can often be confused with apathy or a lack of confidence by employers, forcing them to constantly overlook introverts for promotion and advancement.

I can identify with this only too well, and this is the primary reason why I decided to work independently as a blogger and writer.

7. Introverts often wish they were extroverted.

In many ways, you cannot blame employees for misunderstanding introverts. After all, I have met many introverts who misunderstand their own condition and crave the energy and social prowess showcased by those with an extroverted personality. This can occasionally serve as the inspiration for introverts to enter into group conversations, as a part of them longs to hold court and interact with others simultaneously. Such envy can hinder introverts, however, as they waste time longing to be something they are not rather than embracing their nature and making the most of their lives.

8. Introverts struggle to build romantic relationships.

While their ability to listen and pursue paths of personal development makes introvert excellent romantic companions, building such liaisons in the first instance can be painstaking, time consuming and the very definition of awkward. All introverts will associate with the familiar feeling of dread when meeting someone that they like for the very first time, as they become flustered and struggle to muster the words required to engage them.

I would urge all introverts to persist, however, as we have the capability to enjoy harmonious and genuinely peaceful relationships.

Featured photo credit: Send me Adrift / Flickr via flickr.com

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Story Of The Penny- Why Every Broken Soul Deserves A Chance To Be Mended

Believe it or not, every thing has a story. Some stories are never told and others are never heard. But are they never told because someone dismisses them as insignificant and are they never heard because we don’t take the time to listen?

So, let me start by telling you a story about the penny in the picture above. On a recent Friday morning, I was on my typical morning walk around my neighborhood and was just about a half mile from home when I saw something shiny laying in the street.  But I walked right past it.  Then, something told me to turn around and take a closer look. As I knelt down to see exactly what caught my eye (I don’t wear my contacts on my walk), I realized that it was a simple penny. Or was it so simple?

Without warning, I began to see the correlation between the penny and anyone of us. I was flooded with questions I never even thought about regarding any other means of currency. But something told me there was more to this coin… I felt the dirt and grim against my fingertips and began to relate that to how sometimes our lives are messy.  I saw the scratches as scars from the rough elements, the dents and chips as pieces of our lives where we have lost loved ones, the unworthiness of being found by the side of the road mirror our own feelings of being discarded and tossed aside as if we meant nothing.  No one seemed to care.  No one seemed to pay attention.  No one wanted to know.

But then I saw something else in this crummy looking coin. I saw worthiness. I was drawn by its glimmer and brilliance. Quite simply, it shined. It shined on that darkened street, far from any street light to add to its natural born beauty. Beneath the filth and the imperfectness of its shape, it still dazzled me with its copper appearance and I knew that there was more to it and no one else was here to tell that story.

So, now you know.

As I carried that penny home in my pocket, I thought about all of the other broken souls that never get a chance to be spoken for or heard. I started asking myself questions: Haven’t we all been broken at one time or another? Who of us have not suffered heartbreak or made a mistake we wish we could undo? What would it take to mend a broken soul?

Why does every broken soul deserve a chance to be mended?

Because we have all been broken.

Our souls can endure quite a bit of pain, but eventually we will break.  We will have been kicked enough times that getting back up just doesn’t seem worth it anymore.  No one in this world ever escapes pain, loss, or rejection.

Because we are all worth something.

Even a dirty penny has value.  To some, that value may be insignificant.  But to others, it may mean more than ever thought possible. Sometimes, we don’t even see how we glow until someone else points it out to us.

Because we all make mistakes.

We are human and therefore, we have our flaws.  Our emotions can get the better of us and some of our choices will backfire, no matter how good our intentions might be.  But regardless, we are not perfect and forgiveness is the only way to let go of misgivings.

Because we believe in the good of others.

It is in our nature to be honest and good, so being anything less takes much more effort. Only when actions have been taken do we understand and appreciate the “benefit of the doubt” given to us all.

Because we have carry hope within our hearts.

If we really did not believe in tomorrow, then why forgive?  Why chase a dream?  Why pick ourselves back up?  Why do anything more than anyone else?  Because we all need hope — some of us just see it better than others.  It is up to the ones who see it best to share it with everyone else. Now that I shared this story with you, I wonder what you will do next. How will you use this story of a grimy penny found on a dark street in the early hours of the morning and look at the world just a little differently?

Will you show more compassion than you have previously to the ones who you had looked down upon before?

Will you extend your hand to those who need a hand hold as they gather the strength to once again stand on their own?

Will you offer forgiveness in circumstances that might otherwise seem unforgivable?

Will you unconditionally give to strangers with your time and talents, letting it impact you in ways never imagined?

Will you set aside differences and agree that living is always better than the alternative?

Will you take the time to tell the stories that need to be told and listen to the ones that need to be heard?

Every broken soul deserves a chance to be mended and it is up to us to to make sure it happens.

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What Highly Successful People Were Doing When Facing Their Quarter-Life Crises

Ranging between the period from late teens to early thirties, the quarter-life crisis is the phase during which a person is transitioning to adult life but feels doubtful about their life. The term is comparable to midlife crisis.

The core crisis of the problem that is quarter-life crisis, is the problem of fitting in. Researchers have found that this is the time around which people have the strongest desire to fit in, the time during which they are hoping to give a direction to their life.

Quarter-life crises are common among young adults — about two-thirds of young adults are believed to have experienced this crisis in some form. The experiences of people vary significantly, but eventually people get through it.

The crisis isn’t faced just by average Joe or plain Jane out there. Even the most famous folks in the world today have gone through this crisis in one way or another. Some have made smooth transitions through this period, while for some, paths have been rather tricky.

Here below, we present to you what some famous people were doing around the time when they were facing their own quarter-life crisis at the age of 25.

1. Hillary Rodham Clinton was a recent law school graduate.

Hillary Clinton began dating former US president Bill Clinton, who was also a fellow law student at Yale, at the age of 23. Just before she turned 25, she received her JD degree, which was in the year 1973. That same year, she also began working at the Yale Child Study Center.

2. Donald Trump was given control of his father’s real estate company.

At 25, the young real estate developer took over his father’s real estate development company, Elizabeth Trump & Son, which has since been renamed to The Trump Organization. This was in 1971, when he also moved to Manhattan to be involved in larger building projects, through which he came to public recognition.

3. Richard Branson was running Virgin Labels successfully.

Branson started a record shop in London at the age of 20, four years after he had dropped out of school due to dyslexia. He went on to launch the record label Virgin Records in 1972 at the age of 22. Mike Oldfield’s debut album Tubular Bells became the label’s first release in 1973, which became a chart-topping best-seller. The label later signed the likes of Sex Pistols, The Rolling Stones, and Genesis.

4. Warren Buffett was working as an analyst.

Buffett earned his master’s degree in economics from the Columbia Business School in 1951 at the age of 21. He then worked as an investment salesman at Buffet-Falk & Co. for three years and later as an analyst at Graham-Newman Corp. for two years. In 1956, he went on to start his firm, Buffett Partnership Ltd., In Omaha.

5. Arianna Huffington was travelling to music festivals around the world.

In 1971, when she was Arianna Stassinopolous, she met British journalist Henry Bernard Levin and the two began a relationship. They travelled to music festivals around the world for BBC for several of the ensuing years. In the meantime, in 1973, at the age of 23, she also published her book The Female Woman.

6. J.K. Rowling had just come up with the idea for Harry Potter.

Rowling was 25 in 1990. She had just moved to Portugal to teach English. It was also the same year that she first came up with the idea for her Harry Potter series while on train from Manchester to London. She immediately started the first book, but it took her years to finish it.

7. Stephen King was working as an English teacher.

King graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of Maine in 1970. A year later, he married Tabitha Spruce, a fellow student at Maine. That same year, he was hired as an English educator at Hampden Academy in Maine. He was 26 when his first novel, Carrie, was accepted by the publishing house Doubleday in 1973.

8. Mark Zuckerberg had worked for five years at Facebook.

Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his dormitory room at Harvard in 2004. It had already changed the world, from changing the notion of reaching out to the masses to creating the need for social media management. It was in 2009 however, when Zuckerberg was 25, that Facebook finally turned cash-positive for the first time. In the same year, it also hit 300 million users.

9. Elon Musk was running his first company, Zip2.

In 1995, when he was 24, Musk dropped out of a PhD in applied physics at Stanford to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions. He then started the web software company Zip2, along with his brother Kimbal Musk, using $28,000 of his father’s money. The company was purchased four years later by Compaq for $307 million.

10. Jeff Bezos was working on Wall Street.

Bezos graduated from Princeton University in 1986 at the age of 22. He then went on to work in the computer science field on Wall Street. He worked at Fitel, Banker’s Trust, and D.E. Shaw & Co. He became D.E. Shaw’s youngest ever vice president in 1990 when he was just 26.

11. Steve Jobs had just made Apple a publicly traded company.

Steve Jobs, along with Steve Wozniak, started Apple Computer in 1976, when he was just 21, in the Jobs family garage. Apple I was released in 1976, which was followed by Apple II in 1977. Jobs took Apple Computer public in December 1980. At the end of the first day of trading itself, it had a market value of $1.2 billion.

12. Larry Ellison was working as a programmer.

Ellison dropped out of the University of Illinois, Champaign after the second year and University of Chicago after just one semester. In 1966, aged 22, he moved to Berkeley, California with little money. He went on to switch technical jobs between different places for about a decade. His final job before Oracle was at Amdahl Corporation.

13. Eric Schmidt was doing his PhD at UC Berkley.

Schmidt was doing his graduate coursework at UC Berkley from 1976 to 1982. He earned his PhD in computer engineering from Berkley in 1982, at the age of 27. His focus was on distributed software development and computer networking. He later joined Sun Microsystems as its first software engineer in 1983.

14. Bill Gates made a deal that earned Microsoft its first real success.

Gates was just 20 when he founded Microsoft along with Paul Allen in 1975. In 1980, IBM approached Microsoft for an operating system for their upcoming personal computer. This was when he made that famous deal — offering IBM the software although Microsoft didn’t actually have it. It was purchased only later from Seattle Computer Products.

15. Oprah Winfrey was hosting a TV show in Baltimore.

In 1976, at the age of 22, Winfrey moved to Baltimore, Maryland to co-anchor WJZ-TV’s six o’clock news. She then joined Richard Sher as co-host of local talk show People Are Talking in 1978. The show became an instant hit and she stayed there until 1983 when she moved to Chicago to host AM Chicago, through which she truly made her name.

Featured photo credit: OnInnovation Interview: Elon Musk via flickr.com

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Happy Couples Do Not Only Look For Fun, They Look For Real Pleasure

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