How long have we been working from home? Three months? Four? It seems like both two days and ten years. I have to be honest. This new normal is great. As the most introverted of introverts, I love staying home. I would much rather spend a quiet day reading, walking my dog, researching some obscure topic that only I care about, or planning a new project than anything else. I don’t understand the quote “Go big or go home.” I will always choose to go home! I’ve often wished I could find a fulfilling and well-paid job that I could do from my couch. It’s not lost on me that it took a global pandemic to make my wish come true. I guess my mom was right about being careful what I wish for.
Aside from the virus, I am happy to do the job that I love from the safety of my home. And that’s exactly how I feel. I am most comfortable when I am alone. People make me nervous and interacting with them drains my energy. Here’s another irony, my job requires me to be extroverted most of the time. I am in charge of marketing and communications for a regional nonprofit. I meet new people often and have to be engaging, outgoing, and approachable. If I am honest, I am not any of those things. I’ve learned to fake it most of the time, although sometimes when my energy is low and my anxiety high, I just can’t. When I am in large groups of people I don’t know, I become the proverbial wallflower, which is not good for the job.
Being at home helps. Somehow, it’s easier to lead a large meeting over Zoom. I am able to make my voice heard and offer opinions more assertively than I would in person. The little tiles on my screen are much less intimidating and the delays as people mute and unmute give me time to formulate my words.
I am also more productive because I spend less time worrying over moments that didn’t go the way I wanted them to go or other unimportant details. I am not questioning every conversation or decision I made. I am also not interrupted by co-workers who sap my energy with small talk. Don’t get me wrong, I love my co-workers. I want to know what’s going on in their lives but it’s still a fact of life that human interaction costs introverts a lot of energy. At home, I’m getting more done and I’m driving projects forward faster than usual.
There is one downside to working at home. I may be too comfortable. Well, comfortable is not quite the right word. The world outside is full of unrest, disease, and division and it all weighs heavily on my heart and mind. I can’t watch the news without having a panic attack. I worry about the people we serve and our employees who serve them.
But in the peace and quiet of my home, as I do my work, I am less focused on looking for the next big project or finding the latest marketing strategy. This is not like me. I am a blue sky thinking kind of person. I am happiest when I have a big hairy audacious goal to work towards. These days, I seem to default to a weird sense of complacency that is really not like me. I am productive and I get my work done, but I don’t spend extra hours dreaming or brainstorming.
I wonder if there’s such a thing as being “too comfortable”. Maybe I need the pressure of overcoming my natural reserve to think outside of the box. I’ve read articles about the phenomenon of being uncomfortable in order to succeed but I never really believed it. Now I think there is truth to it. I could say that my unusual complacency is due to the uncertainty off all kinds of tangible things like funding and workforce. Usually though, those things wouldn’t stop my desire to at least dream.
The bottom line is that I want to get back to dreaming. So, I need to find ways to be uncomfortable, whether that means going back to the office, scheduling more in-person meetings, or scheduling a brainstorming session that forces me to be creative. I really feel that I’m missing an opportunity. Now is the time to think differently about everything. Now is not the time to sit back and maintain the status quo. Innovation is happening all around me. So, here’s to being uncomfortable!
#introversion #marketingstrategy #workingfromhome #personalgrowth
