2978: The Truth to Shining Brightly & Letting the World See You by Shirley of Daring Living

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 2978, The Truth to Shining Brightly and Letting the World See You by Shirley of Daring Living.com I'm your narrator Justin Malik, the guy that reads blogs or articles to you every single day of the year including weekends and holidays

[00:00:17] And I'll get right to our next post as we optimize your life The truth to Shining Brightly and Letting the World See You by Shirley of Daring Living.com Today I want to share one truth to Shining Brightly and Presenting Yourself in this world

[00:00:38] How it all started and some background into my past Last weekend I attended a series of events held by NTGX where I was honored to connect with a group of exchange university students from Taiwan

[00:00:51] It is a program that I was involved in during my undergraduate years, it's a group that holds very dear to my heart Once again at the event I saw my old self

[00:00:59] It was as if I was back there in the organizing team with them just a few years ago Struggling and carrying along with me the overwhelming burden of school, the pressure of meeting up to parents and society's expectations The constant struggle of finding my passions

[00:01:15] And most importantly the desperation to reaching that never-ending benchmark I've set forward for myself I was never good enough This time however I was the bystander With much more calmness and openness than before I felt the exchange students hopes dreams and aspirations for the future

[00:01:33] I also saw their personal struggles of finding themselves and searching for a place to belong in this world This experience stirred up a gentle reminder that I think we all deserve to hear about presenting ourselves to this world While also staying true to who we are

[00:01:48] You do not have to be in the spotlight to shine In the society and in organizations today there's a certain type of people that everyone looks up to In order to be successful

[00:01:59] Even during my years in business school in every class we were encouraged to step onto the stage and take the spotlight Own the room with confidence Communicate and inspire people with our ideas You see we were taught to be leaders, not just any type of leader

[00:02:15] It was the extroverted charismatic leaders that were highly valued Sometimes the idea you need to communicate is so important they have to take the stage to express them to the right people But being in the center of the attention is not where everyone thrives

[00:02:29] For me it is not where I thrive, it is not where I can be myself You do not have to be in the spotlight to shine If you don't feel comfortable leading a group or being in the center of attention it is okay

[00:02:41] What is important is that you must understand yourself and find the best method and environment that suits you Where you can effectively and truthfully express yourself and what you have to offer I used to model these attention loving sociable charismatic extroverts

[00:02:57] And thought I had to be them in order to be successful in life But the truth is every one of our personalities is so different According to the Myers-Briggs personality test We can generally group our personality traits in this world into 16 different types

[00:03:13] Out of these 16, half of them are extroverts Out of the 8, only two of them are considered to have the natural charismatic trait ENTJ and ENFJ So what does that mean for those of us who do not belong as an ENTJ or ENFJ?

[00:03:30] Well it means that you simply cannot pretend to be someone you are not And you should not have to be Even if you are one of the two leadership type personalities How much do you understand yourself?

[00:03:42] Be aware of your strengths, weaknesses and the environment that you are most comfortable in But of course these personality tests are just a start Because they are just categories and still don't fully define you Dive into your past experiences and think about what you enjoyed doing

[00:03:58] Try out different hobbies Follow your curiosities Engage and take part in different groups and communities Find out the best way for you to express yourself out to the world Perhaps it is through art, through inventions, through the internet Through writing or through verbal communication

[00:04:16] What kind of environment do you thrive in? Is it through one-on-one conversations or in small groups Or in a big stadium with hundreds of people Do you work better by yourself or in a team? We are all different Don't ever compare yourself and your situation with someone else's

[00:04:32] Focus on yourself Work on yourself That's the only way for you to grow What the world needs What we really need are all types of people portraying different strengths in this world

[00:04:44] Can you imagine what it would be like if the world is filled only with loud charismatic extroverts? It would actually be a pretty scary place to be and nothing would ever get done We do need charismatic people in this world to inspire and gather people together

[00:04:57] But what we need also are quieter introverted people And leaders who prefer to stay behind the scenes and are not afraid to let others take the spotlight What we need are brave people who choose to believe and follow crazy leaders with visions

[00:05:13] What we need are committed people who follow through with what they say and can put words into actions What we need are open-minded people who can really lean in and listen first before speaking

[00:05:26] What we need are kind people who have compassion and can show empathy in this cruel world What we really need are people who have strong self-awareness Who are honest and truthful to themselves so that in return they can be their best selves to better serve this world Quote

[00:05:46] Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that Because what the world needs is people who have come alive Howard Thurman So find out the best way for you to shine Trust me, you do not always have to be in the spotlight to do so

[00:06:01] Sometimes perhaps it is in the darkest most overlooked places where you can be loud and actually shine the brightest You just listened to the post titled The Truth to Shining Brightly and Letting the World See You by Shirley of DaringLiving.com

[00:06:21] Thank you to Shirley, Great Point and something to remember Extraverts are definitely rewarded more often as we're growing up, at least from my experience and where I grew up I was never praised for being shy but the outgoing ones definitely got praise

[00:06:37] It's just a personality trait that we see as more valuable Again I'm talking generally and from my own experience And I think that stems from just wanting that child or person to be liked

[00:06:46] As a shy kid or person it can be difficult to make new friends and get along with people And there's a bit of a downward spiral that can happen where the more shy you are, the more you hide

[00:06:57] Which makes you more shy and the more you hide again and so on But as we get older to Shirley's point there are other skills we developed Shy or not that make us who we are and make us shine

[00:07:09] Some might say I'm here in the spotlight right now But I'm actually just sitting in a room talking to myself under fluorescent lights It's not exactly a spotlight and I can still be shy and do this podcast

[00:07:21] So yeah lots of different ways to look at this and I completely agree Who knows where you'll shine the brightest? It's up to you to figure that out Maybe something to think about this weekend and next week for Thanksgiving

[00:07:33] Have a great rest of your weekend and I'll be back tomorrow as usual So I'll see you there, wear your optimal life I'll wait