Everyone who knows me well knows I have a serious interest in the concept of ‘Time’. [I mean a strong interest in the philosophy and the physics around the concept of Time]. And, people who know me well accept the fact I maintain an ongoing ‘serious peeve’ about self-talk and expression of thoughts like, “I’m too busy” and “I don’t have time”. 

Of course, when you have a serious peeve [i.e., much more than a pet peeve], you tend to want to explain it to people. You want to try to persuade them to buy into your way of thinking. And, if you are like me then you write things in an effort to express your thoughts and arguments. 

Here are some samples of the things I have written:

• If you think time flies, try holding your breath while your boss is telling a story.
• A person who chases two rabbits is 'too busy' to catch either.
• Beware those vagrant thoughts. [Unless, of course, you want to waste a lot of time.]
• When Opportunities seek out people to visit, they pretty much avoid all the too-busy people.
• Only a silly person would waste time talking about not having enough time.

“Life is a state of mind.” [The U.S. President said that at the end of one of my favourite movies…in 1979.] Actually, life is a relentless stream of states of mind. [I said that in a little Thought Post titled ‘ It's all a matter of mindset’.] 

If you believe life is a relentless stream of states of mind then you may be drawn into thinking about the content of your states of mind. You may be drawn into thinking about how those states arrive in your mind. And, you may be drawn into thinking about controlling your states of mind.

That’s what happened to me:

• I accepted life is a relentless stream of states of mind
• I recognized some of those states of mind are positive, while others are negative
• I decided I can, to a degree, control the thoughts that exist in my states of mind

Then…

I decided I did not want my states of mind to contain thoughts like “I’m too busy” and “I don’t have time”.  

With effort and practice, I pretty much removed these ‘time-constrained’ states from my mind. I found this improved my quality of life…increased my peace of mind. 

This sequence of events compelled me to try to help others remove 'time-constrained thinking' from their states of mind. 

Anxiety is the body's way of helping its owner act properly when situations signal danger.

Anxiety - that's the body helping its owner act properly.

We should not complicate this natural process by mixing it with negative over-thinking and rear-view second-guessing.

When anxiety visits us, we should pluck the troubling past and the worrisome future from our thoughts.

And, when situations trigger our natural defense mechanisms, rather than fight, we should embrace the anxieties we have been blessed to experience. We should fully trust those anxieties are there to serve us. Then we should grab hold of the pre-frontal cortices and put them to full use…figuring out how to capture the energy brought through our reptilian-response vestiges and use that energy to spring to much higher places.

Of course, it will be very difficult to do this during the rush of chemistry that hits us when anxieties visit.

So, we must to plan in advance, during the calm between the anxiety storms.

And, we must practice...until we master the art of taking anxieties to better places.

While I recognize introversion is a key psychological consideration, until recently, I have not been bitten by any urge to write about it.  Now that I have been bitten by an urge, my first key thought is genetics must predispose some people to be introverts while some others are predisposed to be extroverts and everyone else is predisposed to live in the middle ground between introverts and extroverts. Perhaps, an easy way to think about it is to consider long-gene and short-gene options where matching pairs make you an introvert or an extrovert and mixed pairs cause you to be in the middle ground. If that is a reasonable proxy then about 25% of people would be introverts, about 25% would be extroverts, and the remaining 50% would be in the middle ground. There’s no doubt genetics is far more complicated, however, I can live with a simple model like that to describe the role played by genetics.

Accepting that simple model, I must have received a mixed pair of genes.

How do I know this?

Well, from an early age, we know what we like and what we don’t like. For as long as I can remember, I have found it easy to become consumed in my thoughts. Yet, at the same time, I have enjoyed being with friends, especially in team-competitive situations. For as long as I can remember, I have strived to being the centre of attention. Yet, at the same time, I have been shied away from the limelight of programmed limelight, the best example being school ‘speeches’.

Over the last 15 years, I have become increasingly interested in understanding other people. Particularly, I am interested in helping business people achieve leadership-team successes. So, I have read much about philosophical viewpoints, psychological findings, and the operation of that most-amazing creation - the human brain.

Before writing too much more on this topic of introversion, I am interested in understanding what others think about the topic, how they think it applies to themselves, and how they think their knowledge can assist 'self and others'.

When I gather this thinking, I will share more thoughts about introversion.