Highlights from “Introvert Power”

Here are few highlights and quotes from this book; not all of them are related to in/extroversion.

1. To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. Whatever is not commonly seen is condemned as alien.
3. The best-adjusted people are the ‘psychologically patriotic,’ who are glad to be what they are.
4. Being an introvert does not mean you’re antisocial, asocial, or socially inept. It does mean that you are oriented to ideas — whether those ideas involve you with people or not. It means that you prefer spacious interactions with fewer people. And it means that, when you converse, you are more interested in sharing ideas than in talking about people and what they’re doing.
5. Introverts are energized and excited by ideas.
6. A good conversation leaves an introvert feeling more connected, but also personally richer.
7. Solitude is not lack.
8. Boredom is a necessary precursor to creativity.
9. As Gloria Steinem said, “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.”
10. All natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence.
11. Whining is an indication of powerlessness.
12. Inner clarity is a source of power: the clearer you are about what you want, the more prepared you are to act when the time is ripe.
13. Regardless of where you roam in the course of your day, don’t forget to take your mind with you — the ultimate private space.
14. Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than earth. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege established institutions and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. — Bertrand Russell
15. To achieve, you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that’s real power. — Ayn Rand
16. Desire is the seed of intrinsic intrinsic motivation, the natural impulse to create, to expand, to grow.
17. There is more to life than increasing its speed. — Gandhi
18. The more you trust your desires and allow them to emerge, the less effort you have to expend.
19. Violent passions are formed in solitude. In the busy world no object has time to make a deep impression. — Henry Home
20. We cannot ask others to respect our boundaries unless we respect them ourselves.
21. A good rule of thumb is that any environment that consistently leaves you feeling bad about who you are is the wrong environment. Have the courage to evaluate your job, to demand more from it, to put it on probation when it is failing you, and to terminate it when necessary. Dream job or no, you have a right to change your mind.
22. As we get busy with the work, however, it’s easy to forget the idea that started it all. Anchoring yourself in your idea is a great way to restore meaning to your work — or to find work that has meaning.
23. Van Gogh’s own words suggest that he had some awareness of the price of his passion: “It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent.”
24. I said to myself, “I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me”… I decided to start anew — to strip away what I had been taught — to accept as true my own thinking. — Georgia O’Keeffe
25. We more often use words to defend our thinking, which usually implies that the thinking needs something else — support, justification, apology.
26. To express want is to own the desire, to stand in your own reality.
27. If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you. — Natalie Goldberg
28. We are attracted to the people we need in order to grow.
29. Whatever you love, you are. — Rumi
30. Most everything you detest in others will come back to kick you in the butt — it you’re lucky. It is good to define yourself, and it is good to know when it’s time to break out of the definition and get bigger.
31. Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish. — Michelangelo
32. Real desires promotes flow and expands you.
33. The more a person is able to tolerate paradox in search of truth, the less energy will be spent defending a rigid position.