As part of the #quietwriting hashtag and Instagram Challenge, we shift now to looking at the value of quiet in my life and yours.
Use the #quietwriting hashtag across platforms – for the challenge and beyond – as a way to create, connect and link us together on our ongoing journey to draft, process, create, make space for writing and other creativity and otherwise live a wholehearted creative life. Read on to discover more and connect with creative others about the value of quiet.
Quiet in my life
When I was thinking of prompts for the #quietwriting challenge, it wasn’t long before the word ‘quiet’ popped up.
Why? There’s no surprise that quiet is a value I hold very dear as a writer, an introvert and an INTJ in Jung/Myers-Briggs personality type. You only have to look at my business and website name to see that!
For the challenge, I’ve chosen to share an image of two books that made a huge difference in my life:
- Quiet by Susan Cain
- Quiet Influence by Jennifer Kahnweiler
I’ve written about both books in more detail in my free e-book, 36 Books that Shaped my Story.
The first time I understood my need for quiet in a deeper way was when I worked on assessing my psychological type with a coach. My coach said to me, asking about work contexts as a leader, “Do you close your door?” It was a light bulb moment that helped me to value my need to close the door occasionally, get quiet and regroup. It was okay to do it and it was something I needed to do.
That insight and conversation was the beginning of a deeper journey into understanding my introverted intuitive nature and its needs. These two books helped me immensely in that journey.
Quiet in my life as a leader
I read these two books on quiet and introvert strengths when I was a leader in the adult vocational education sector. My role involved leading many people, up to 3,000 staff and with responsibility for tens of thousands of students and their learning environment and programs. I often had to speak to large groups. Tough negotiations and meetings were commonplace. I also worked in the political arena, advising our state Minister for Education in an environment that was mostly anything but quiet or relaxed.
These books, furthering my knowledge of my INTJ personality type, helped me to understand the value and strengths of being a quiet worker and leader. Skills like the ability to listen deeply, read widely, prepare and research well, ask valuable questions and use writing as a strategic skill. You need to learn how to deploy these skills and use them to effect in different ways. Not comparing yourself to extraverted others helps. Being able to understand and marshal your strengths is a powerhouse of knowledge and skill you can quietly own and use. Jennifer Kahnweiler’s book particularly helped me understand key six skills of quiet influence and recognise my strengths in this space. Writing is one of these and my superpower that I use in many ways to enact quiet in my life and its influence.
Quiet in your life
How about you? Think about roles you have been in and where you have learnt the value of quiet in your life. As an introvert, you might need to learn to work differently and honour what is natural rather than see it as a weakness. Extraverts might need to learn to carve out space in their lives for quiet because it’s not always a natural preference.
- Were you a quieter person growing up? How did it make you feel?
- How do you make space for quiet in your life now?
- What does quiet look like in your life?
- How does quiet play out in your relationships, between the extraverts and introverts in your life?
- Did you feel different if you were a quiet person at home or at work?
- What did you do about this? Do you understand it?
- If you were not the quiet person, did you find it challenging to make space for quiet in your life?
- What helps you quieten?
- Which practices at work or in your creativity help you to harness the power of quiet?
Love to hear your thoughts and see any images on Instagram – just use the hashtag #quietwriting for the challenge or anytime so we can connect with you. Or share your thoughts in the comments or on Facebook.
Understanding your personality
If you’d like to work more on understanding our personality, I’ll be rolling out my offerings in the personality space in mid October. It’s not just about introvert and extrovert aspects though these are important. You learn about your preferences around sensing and intuition; thinking and feeling; and perceiving and judging as well.
The Personality Stories package includes:
- personality type assessment online
- an online course on personality preferences so you can understand your type
- a coaching package to work on deep-diving into the wholehearted story of your personality.
- a Quiet Writing personality type summary, and
- email support for two weeks after.
Personality Stories coaching package
Here’s the detail of the coaching package. You receive:
- Personality assessment online: Complete the Majors Personality Type Inventory (MajorsPTI™) online assessment. This helps you to begin to identify your Jung/Myers-Briggs 4-letter personality type.
- Self-paced online course on personality type: Working through the self-paced Personality Stories ecourse. It takes about 3 hours (max) to complete this short online course. I hope you will find it fascinating learning about Carl Jung, his followers and their rich work on personality type.
- Coaching debrief to work through your results: Once you complete the ecourse, we have a 90 minute 1:1 face to face coaching session via Zoom to debrief your results. You receive your Majors Personality Type assessment report, and the four letter code arrived at, in this session. The coaching debrief focuses on checking that your assessment result is your true or best-fit Type and discussing your results. We work through any questions and set inspiring goals and actions to take this knowledge forward and embed it in your life.
- Quiet Writing summary: Once your true personality type is confirmed from the coaching session, you will receive a Quiet Writing summary of the key aspects of your personality type to take forward. This includes links to further reading, tarot connections and suggestions for managing stress and fostering creativity in your life.
- Email contact for 2 weeks after to follow up on any questions and learnings.
The investment for this package is priced at $350AU as a special ‘first release’ price. Just let me know via email at terri@quietwriting.com if you are interested in being included in the first limited October enrolment.
Quiet connections via #quietwriting
So I welcome your comments here or on social media. I look forward to seeing #quietwriting images that share thoughts and open up dialogue on quiet in your life. Just share an image on Instagram using the tag #quietwriting and follow the prompts each day for ideas. Here are the prompts:
And the #quietwriting hashtag will continue beyond the week of the challenge, so use it anytime to create and connect. You can learn more here about #quietwriting
Just a reminder of the key points:
- Quiet Writing is about the strength that comes from working steadily and without fanfare in writing and other spheres to create, coalesce, influence and connect.
- Hashtags are such a fabulous way to gather, finding our creative kindred souls and inspiration online.
- On Instagram, you can now follow hashtags as well as individual profiles. So follow #quietwriting now and into the future to connect around creativity and your quiet work, writing and making art.
- You can head on over to the #quietwriting hashtag on Instagram or Facebook or other social media anytime and see what’s popping up.
- You could also post on your own profile on Facebook as well using the hashtag.
- Often we write quietly, behind closed doors or in busy cafes, privately. Let’s shine a light behind the scenes and capture the process of writing and creativity in action, wherever we are.
Get on board with #quietwriting + the hashtag challenge!
These are just some ideas and they will evolve as we all contribute. It doesn’t have to be all about writing – it can be any form of creativity. Nor do you need to be an introvert; all of us need quiet writing time to get creative work done.
I’ll feature my favourite images from the tag here and on Instagram and Facebook so share your images for the chance to be featured!
So join the #quietwriting party and let us know what you are up to! Who knows what creative connections you might make to support you on your journey or inspire your next creation?
Welcome your comments and images to inspire and connect our creativity online from the quiet in my life and yours!
Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’
You can work with me to help reset your creativity and wholehearted self-leadership. Free 30-45 minute coaching consults chats are available so please get in touch at terri@quietwriting.com to talk further. I’d love to be a guide to help you create with spirit and heart in your own unique way. Consults available now for an October coaching start!
You can download my free 94-page ebook on the 36 Books that Shaped my Story – just sign up with your email address in the box to the right or below. You will also receive updates from Quiet Writing and its passions. This includes personality type, coaching, creativity, writing, tarot and other connections to help express your unique voice in the world.
Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.
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You might also enjoy:
#quietwriting – growing creative community and connection
Shining a quiet light – working the gifts of introversion
How to be more aware of cognitive diversity in the workplace
Personality skills including how to be the best you can be as an introvert in recruitment
Introverted and extraverted intuition – how to make intuition a strong practice
