Meurisse - Thibaut Meurisse: The Thriving Introvert

017 Thibaut Meurisse

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law .

D o you despise small talk? Do you frequently refuse to answer your phone? Do you wish you could skip the parties youre invited to? If any of these sounds familiar, you might be an introvert. Dont worry, youre not odd or defective. In fact, youre full of wonderful qualities that are much needed in todays society! You simply need some time on your own to recharge your battery. I invite you to view your introversion as a gift, and the best way to offer it to the world is by embracing who you really are deep down .

This book will be a great fit for you if any of the following is true :

• You want to learn more about introversion and its implications on your life .
• Youre sick of being told to talk more, become more outgoing, or attend more social events, and you want to embrace your introversion wholeheartedly .
• You want to create a life that supports your introversion .
• You struggle with social events and want to become better at interacting with people while staying true to your introverted self .
• You want to be able to leave parties without feeling guilty, awkward, or pressured to stay .
• You want to feel comfortable in your own skin and thrive as an introvert .

If you can relate to any of these statements, this book is for you !

W hy This Book

This book is the book I wish someone had given me when I was younger. To be honest, I didnt know what introversion was until a few years ago. And I only learned about it when I started delving deeply into personal development .

Under different circumstances, I would probably have spent my entire life ignorant of introversion and its implications on my life. Sadly, thats what happens to many of us. Even when we believe we understand introversion, our idea of it is often vague. As a result, we have difficulties designing a life that truly matches our introverted personality. If anything, we blame ourselves for our introverted behaviors, and may even feel ashamed of ourselves .

While you can find many great books on introversion out there, they generally fail to offer you practical steps to help you redesign your life. After reading them, you may feel inspired or empowered in some ways, but without a practical action plan, they will leave you unsure of what to do next .

Even worse, these books often encourage you to act like an extrovert, perpetuating the idea that something is wrong with you. My guess is that you dont want to be told you should behave like an extrovert, am I right ?

My goal with this book is to explain what introversion is, and to provide you with practical exercises that will help live the life you were meant to live as an introvert. Although in some occasions I will challenge you to move beyond your comfort zone, I dont want you to behave like an extrovert. Instead, I want you to use the gift of your introversion to make your biggest contributions to the world while being as happy as you can .

More specifically, my aim with this book is to :

• Help you deepen your understanding of introversion
• Encourage you to fully accept your introversion and remove any feelings of guilt or shame
• Offer you an opportunity to reflect on your own introversion
• Entice you to take concrete actions towards redesigning your life, and
• Inspire you to live with your introversion to the fullest and make your best contribution to the world .

I understand that your time is precious and I have done my best to make this book as straightforward and practical as possible. To encourage you to take action, Ive created a free workbook that you can download for free at the following link :

http://whatispersonaldevelopment.org/the-thriving- introvert .

I hope you will make good use of it as you redesign your life .

Click on the link below to download your FREE action guide :

h ttp://whatispersonaldevelopment.org/the-thriving-introvert

Introduction

T o be honest with you, I longed to be an extrovert for many years. As a youngster, I wished I could go to parties and have tons of energy to talk, interact, and enjoy meeting new people. At times, I even wished I could be the life of the party. I imagined how many more friends I would have and how much more popular I wouldve been if only I could have been more extroverted. No doubt about it, I envied extroverts, and to a certain extent, might still envy them today .

There were countless times where I did my best to be as interesting as possible only to be ignored within five minutes because I didnt have the energy to maintain small talk. I would then become invisible to the extent that it seemed pointless to have opened my mouth in the first place. Have you ever experienced anything like that ?

Ive found myself in conversations where I have nothing to say more often than Id like to admit. It happens most when Im talking to members of the opposite sex. Its a little strange. I read a lot and have a pretty good sense of humor, but I can turn into a really boring person at parties .

Often, I would return from parties feeling depressed. I kept thinking I needed to be smarter, more attractive, more interesting, and more charismatic. It felt as though I was never good enough .

At one point, I even Googled how to become more interesting !

Maybe you can relate to that? I used to chastise myself for being too shy to socialize, and often blamed it on fatigue. I grew to resent extroverts for their ability to maintain conversations in loud and busy environments. Although I knew trying to become the life of the party was near to impossible, I couldnt admit it to myself. This self-defense mechanism may have been a way for me to avoid addressing my problems and embracing my true personality .

At first, I thought my issue was lack of confidence, assertiveness, or leadership skills. Although this was true to a certain extent, it wasnt the whole story. At the time, I didnt fully understand what it meant to be an introvert. In a world where extroversion seemed to be the norm, I was trying hard to put an end to my introversion. It turned out to be an impossible task, but it took me quite a while to realize that fact .

Action step

O n a scale of 1 to 10, how true are the following statements? Rate yourself using the workbook available here .

1. I hate small talk, but I enjoy deep conversations .
2. I get tired if I stay at a party for too long .
3. I feel like everything I say should be meaningful and often refrain from talking for this reason .
4. I prefer one-on-one, or small group conversations over talking in large groups .
5. I need to spend time alone to recharge my battery .
6. I think before I speak .
7. I have difficulty thinking when in a group. I think best when Im on my own .
8. I usually listen more than I talk .
9. I dislike interruptions .