When I was a child, people sometimes referred to me as shy and quiet. Sometimes, such remarks came across as though it was a negative attribute that I needed to fix. As I have matured, I’ve learned that my reserved personality is a positive trait, and not something I’d ever want to change.
Here are some things that I’ve learned about reserved personality types:
We are great listeners.
We are the friends that people call when they’re upset. Our friends know that we won’t turn around and blab their personal business to anyone else. We can be trusted to keep secrets safe. Also, we would never try to turn the conversation and make it about ourselves.
We don’t need the limelight.
We don’t crave attention and are quite comfortable allowing our extroverted friends have the spotlight. We enjoy watching the energy of our attention-seeking friends!
We think before we speak.
We don’t blurt out the first words that come to mind. We carefully choose our words so that we clearly articulate exactly what we want to say and not offend anyone. We never say, “Oops, I wish I hadn’t said that.”
Being alone is sometimes nice.
Sure, we love being with our friends, but spending time alone is satisfying, too. This is how we recharge. We’re easy to please because we don’t need to find a party every weekend to make us feel happy.
Our best friends are extroverts.
My best friend is a beaming extrovert. Our personalities are totally different, yet they complement each other. We never clash, but instead we balance each other out and absolutely love spending time together.
We are analyzers.
We are introspective and internally analyze situations as we go about our business. We never have knee-jerk reactions to things. Everything we do is well thought out, so we have very few regrets.
For all the people who are wired like me, please be you. Your understated nature is not something you need to change or fix. Your quiet strength is one of your gifts!