I am both an introvert and an extrovert. I am a Registered Nurse/Clinical Supervisor at a hospital. For my job it is very important for me to be an extrovert. I round with doctors, nurses, and patients all day at my job. My job is to make sure that all of these people are happy. I am required to present a positive and upbeat attitude to everyone I come in contact with while I am working. One of my sayings is, "fake it till you make it." If I am tired or not feeling good I fake it and put on a happy face to keep the morale up on my nursing units. My nurses count on me for it. My patients also appreciate a smile and kind words when I visit with them. As you can imagine some days this is very difficult!
When I get home I become an introvert. I am so tired of cheerleading, troubleshooting, and taking care of everyone else's problems that I just want to be alone. I like to read, watch TV or just sit quietly. I don't like to socialize in crowds. I prefer to spend my time with a few of my closest friends and our families. I like my time to myself to unwind and just be still. This doesn't happen as often as I would like because I am a wife, mother, sister, daughter and aunt. The time I get to be an introvert is very special to me. It helps me charge my batteries for the times when I need to be an extrovert.
I can relate to this very well. I work as a retail salesman at RadioShack when I am not here at Mansfield and on weekends, so I am talking to anywhere from 30 to 100 people a day about all sorts of topics, so I need to make sure I have good social skills to perform my job at the highest level. On the other hand, it definitely makes me value my alone time even more. Do you prefer your extroverted tendencies or your introverted tendencies more? For me, it would have to be extroverted.
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