Years ago, I saw an interview with Barbara Walters. The interviewer asked Barbara what her favorite question to ask her famous and infamous subjects when she interviewed them. She said that her absolute favorite question was, “What is the biggest misconception people have about you?”
Now, I have used that question myself many times in social situations and it always brings about some interesting results. Try the question on your squad. You may be surprised. Of course, the question inevitably always gets turned back on me. My same answer for years and years has been that the biggest misconception people have about me is that people think that I’m an extrovert but I’m truly more of an introvert. People do scoff when I say that because people’s perceptions are that extroverts are loud, friendly, energetic, talkative and often with crowds, and I do seem to fit that bill. Actually though, the difference between an extrovert and an introvert is more about where you get your energy stores. An extrovert gets a lot of energy from being in the action, being with people, and being social. An introvert gets their energy stores from their alone time, their quiet time, and being reflective. I really need a lot of alone time. Social events deplete me pretty quickly. My husband seems to be the same way as me. Turns out, this is more common than I thought and the relatively new term for this way of being is ambivert.
An ambivert is someone who is mostly in the middle when it comes to extroverted and introverted ways of being. An ambivert just as easily gets consumed in their own thoughts as they do in conversation. An ambivert doesn’t mind small talk, but he or she gets bored of it after a while. Some people who know an ambivert describe them as social, yet others would say that they are quiet. Most experts now agree, that most of us are more likely to fall into this middle ground of being an ambivert than being extremely extroverted or extremely introverted.
So, bottom line I think that I am going to have to come up with my new answer to Barbara Walters’ question. Ask yourself her question, “What is the biggest misconception people have about you?” And feel free to put it in the comments section. I am feeling friskily extroverted today. 😉