The Positive Advantages of Being Comfortably Average

News Flash:  Many of the best leaders and productive people are not extraverts.
Wouldn’t it feel good to live by your own “Quiet” standards?  There is a very popular and timely book out right now called Quiet, by Susan Cain. This book will be a Godsend for so many, many people. It should raise a positive awareness that many of the people producing the best ideas and who are most productive … are not extraverts.  In fact it ends up that the opposite is more often true! They are intraverts.
Hi, this is Rich Aanrich. When I was back in college I wrote a paper on the “Positive Advantages of Being Average.” My class was filled with adults going back to school.  The paper was received as a great sense of relief for most of my fellow classmates. Although a few were so entangled in the competitive life that they couldn’t let themselves “Dare To Enjoy Being Average.”

Try thinking about it this way…

Imagine the population on a grid of 0 – 100{8b3a2f999ba59642dfe826ddd554f6c9ff0174d7b182d4f1913e29042ced5c7c}. If 10-15{8b3a2f999ba59642dfe826ddd554f6c9ff0174d7b182d4f1913e29042ced5c7c} on either end are highly extraverted or on the low end completely the opposite? That leaves 70{8b3a2f999ba59642dfe826ddd554f6c9ff0174d7b182d4f1913e29042ced5c7c} who are either somewhat extraverted and / or introverted. Those are the people who are not on either extreme. Yet, they do have dreams, hopes, and a desire for a good life. Kind of like … you and me … right?
When you are “comfortably average,” an advantage is that you do not have to be insanely driven and stressed out. Trying to be someone you’re not or you really don’t want to be is stressful. Why not simply be comfortably average?
Wouldn’t it feel good to not have to fit uncomfortably into someone’s “extravert” standards? What could it be like to live within your own values and what’s important for your own experience … of a comfortable life worth living? It’s okay to be who you are, introvert or otherwise.

Try this perspective for a moment.

Buddha received one of his major insights, as he sat on the bank of a river, listening to a man explaining to his son how to set up the strings on a musical instrument.

“You’ll want the strings to be (comfortably) set just in the middle. Not too tight or too loose. If the strings are too loose the sound will not be good, and if they are too tight they will break. In the middle is what you want.”

That is pretty good insight for us to be comfortably okay and not on either extreme, isn’t it?
So take off the label called “average.” Would it be okay to just be who you are, where you are, and doing what feels right…to you? You can still improve in your own way and be creative, probably even better than the vocal ones. And, you can certainly live healthier with less stress!

Do you Dare to Try It? What can happen if you do?

Live comfortably. OK…with being yourself… insightful, happy and “Quiet.”
Want to be on your own path to “Quiet Power”?  Check out our Coaches at Apositiva.
We have Coaches who understand the power of operating in a space that supports who you are and who you want to become. How? Either on the phone, in-person or online.
Call or text Rich directly at 503-754-8226.
Call or text Cat directly at 503-816-5104.
See you on the path.