…You Have to Watch Out For!
I’m quiet, I’ll admit it; a listener, a side-liner, an unsuspecting mouse in a world full of the loud, obnoxious and ‘brave’. I’m a thinker, a peaceful pacifier, the one who adheres to the rules, wouldn’t dream of eating with her elbows on the table, smiles in all the right places. At least that’s how many an outsider would describe me.
Tee hee, how I love to surprise them all and ROAR!
Seriously, there is nothing more exhilarating than when us ‘timid, tepid, shy, shrinking violets’ jump out of our closets with a BANG to surprise the world.
And we don’t necessarily do that in a negative way… although (as uncharacteristic for me as it may be), I always smile when I think back to the time my friend was being verbally mashed to a pulp for having ginger hair outside a nightclub… and I grabbed her mouthy attacker by the scruff of the neck and flung her down onto a car bonnet, shocking even myself.
Nope, I wasn’t even drunk, we’re talking a fifteen year old’s disco, a bottle of Coke and a surge of How-Very-Dare-You!
Of course I do not condone my behaviour. These days I shower everyone with love, even the ‘enemy’, for we are all One (Donald Trumps and Katie Hopkins included). An eye for an eye simply doesn’t work.
But for me this is a fabulous illustration of the way that I, we, collectively as Omniverts can delight ourselves and the world when we really want to.
Most often, nowadays, my ROAR moments come in answer to a spontaneous and sudden call for justice, fairness and world love.
- Like speaking up in a meeting where I have appeared to have lost my tongue… and then BAM, I deliver the most incredible spiel and everyone sits up and goes ‘woah, aren’t you the dark horse?!’
- Like giving the homeless guy a bank note (whilst all around people ignore his presence) and are suddenly very aware of the kind of thing they too could be doing to help make the world a little happier today.
- Like challenging the status quo of an opinion everyone else is clinging onto like a flock of sheep… there is often nothing more goose bump inducing than daring to be the one who has the different take on life; the Square Peg!
ROAR moments for us Omniverts and Introverts come in all shapes and sizes, and just about every kind of fun and games.
But ROAR moments can also come from a surge of latent energy that has been simmering…
Bubbling away, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to GO, GO, GO. I love that feeling. It’s the tingle we Omniverts get when we know something amazing is on the horizon… but for now we’ll just calmly wait for our moment, re-set our inner compasses, get ourselves ready to get back out into the ‘marketplace’.
It’s the embers re-kindling in the pit of our stomach when we just know we’re going to prove ourselves to not so much the world and others living in it, but ourselves; that we can do/be/have something we’ve long had our sights set on; that it’s not only he (or she) who screams loudest who is the success story.
It’s the spontaneous answer to an immediate call that actually, those who do tend to scream loudest, cannot hear, cannot act upon, cannot take advantage of, or simply cannot make a decision about – and then miss their boat. Because their outer voices are so loud that they’re drowning out their inner voices.
And so, we ‘quiet ones’ are made of powerful stuff.
Well, we’re all made of the same stuff. We all come from stars, after all. It’s just that those of us who are ‘unsuspecting’ to others, quite often we know ourselves all the better for it. We don’t feel the need to prove our point, trumpet blow and shout it out for all and sundry to hear from the rooftops. For one, it’s not stylish and it screams (literally) desperation. And for two, we know it’s only ourselves we ever need to convince… and that can be a quiet, non-ranty affair.
“Just because you don’t say much doesn’t mean people don’t notice you. It’s actually the quiet ones who often draw the most attention. There’s this constant whirlwind of motion and sound all around, and then there’s the quiet one, the eye of the storm.”
Amy Efaw
“Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content, the quiet mind is richer than a crown…”
Robert Greene
“Nowadays silence is looked on as odd and most of my race has forgotten the beauty of meaning much by saying little. Now tongues work all day by themselves with no help from the mind.”
Toni Morrison
The quiet ones:
- Become president, just like Abe Lincoln did.
Take note, Trump and Clinton: never under-estimate the power of one who has bags of inner strength, doesn’t need the media to cover every single ‘charitable’ act of their doing, doesn’t need to ram what they stand for down society’s throat, and possesses that rare quality we seem to have lost in the noise that is today’s look-at-me world: Integrity. - Become pop stars or actresses like Christina Aguilera and Emma Watson.
It’s easy to make the assumption that one who is in the limelight courtesy of the arts has one helluva Diva-like, loud-mouthed personality behind closed doors. Yet both these stars often decline the social scene of their famous counterparts, preferring instead to do their own thing without the papparazzi at their coat tails. It’s hardly had an adverse effect on their success!
In fact, Emma Watson is a huge fan of the 2012 Susan Cain book, “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking”, a New York Times Bestseller which examines the way the Western world has been led to believe the only way to make a success of your life is by being an Extrovert. She has even been cited in interviews as saying it’s like the story of her own life… - Become famous authors like J.K Rowling, who is constantly being referred to as an Introvert. And just look what that did for her creativity!
- Become super genius innovators like Bill Gates – enough said.
- Become awesome First Lady’s like Eleanor Roosevelt, whose childhood feelings of inadequacy helped her nurture an understanding and sensitivity to the need of every creed, race and nation.
- Become peace makers such as Mahatma Gandhi, who reminded us that we didn’t need to go all out and hell for leather with his simple but powerful mantra: ‘In a gentle way you can shake the world’
But perhaps Rosa Parks is the best example as to why we should never underestimate a quiet soul.
In 1955, Rosa refused to give up her seat for a white man, at a time when racial inequality was the norm, and frankly unchallenged; at a time when to do so put her very life in danger. It can be no coincidence then that her autobiography published in 2000 was called, “Quiet Strength.” The ripple effect this seemingly unassuming black woman achieved by feeling those very embers in the pit of her stomach, by being the calm soul in her everyday life, enabled her to listen to her heart, to hear her moment of calling in a way that an Extrovert could only dream of replicating.
Life is tortoise and life is hare.
The hare is frantic, loud, in a rush, ‘look at me as I zoom past… catch me while you can’, missing the point of ‘the journey’.
The tortoise is taking in the landscape, the beauty, enjoying the ride and the process and the change that comes with that. The tortoise is quiet and unassuming, yes; but the tortoise is also oh, so very clever, and we’re talking emotional intelligence-style clever… so clever in fact that he or she always wins. In the end!
