How to Become an Extrovert in 4 Easy Steps
- Sign up for a networking event or social gathering where you won’t know anyone.
- Go alone.
- Walk into the room/bar/pavilion and approach the first group of people you see.*
- Open your mouth and start talking…
If you’re like me and you grew up as an introvert
*Ok, I’ll be honest. My first stop was the bar. I have a profound respect for any organization that believes its members are worthy of the Open Bar. And a beer in the hand is the perfect prop for socializing. A prop, not a crutch. Drinking yourself into oblivion to summon your inner extrovert is considered cheating. You’re not fooling anyone you drunk.
Update: more on becoming an extrovert here.
Personal Growth Carnival October 24th…
I really like the titles of the posts this week. We’re not doing categories this week but the posts are broken up into groups for easier reading. I’m going to go back to categories next week. They just work better. Enjoy the articles.
Tracy Coen ….
[...] Next, you can check out How to Become an Extrovert in 4 Easy Steps for some simple tips on diving into social situations with ease. [...]
haha, very funny… appreciate your tips, I really do, but… I just did those 4 steps or parts of it like a 1000 times and you know what? Most of the time people don’t want to talk back ever and I finally got sick of it.
Here’s because why and maybe this will be a good reason for introverts not to try to bend towards something they never can be with their full heart and soul or without being hurt:
at first: Extroverts seem to be very shallow, always out for themselves, and I probably never ever understand, how two self-reflecting people ever can share something. Somany things happen in a room full of extroverts, things in which I will never seem to be allowed to be involved in. It feels like I am invisible at best and disturbing, like I’m a spork at worst. I am neither neurotic nor lack social skills.
at second: Social interaction IS about exchange and believe me, most extroverts just don’t got the antennaes to ever get those introverts. Most extroverts I’d actually got to known at some point admitted, that they were puzzled by me at first. Huh. And I was just talking about the weather.
the answer: You know, finally I started acting classes, to challenge body language more closely and I was surprised about the amount of nonverbal communication layers extroverts use. Introverts cant seem to fit in the apprpriate gesture or move and so they mostly wont earn any trust.
I can function as a full 100% extrovert nowadays, but it’s like a JOB. It costs lots of energy and I only do it, when I really hate to be alone all the time. Because noone ever does the first step towards some introvert. It’s exasperating.
third:
ANd the funny thing is - I like exchanging words, and touches and all the gestures extroverts do enjoy - the difference seems to be, that introverts really mean it and extroverts often merely follow the social norm / pulling an automated task - nothing bad about it, dont misunderstand me.
Reciprocity is the key.
That’s why introverts really can get close if you let them - because when they are close to you - they REALLY ARE close. This seem to scare extroverts off and lets introverts hesitate because they are the first to be hurt when things dont work out.
[...] I wrote the original post half-jokingly after going to a commercial real estate networking event, alone, without knowing anyone in advance. It was an interesting experience in the spirit of self-experimentation. [...]