I’ve been asked this question in hundreds of variants over the years. I now realize what most of my answers really come down to:
When I’m by myself, I’m in great company: I am my own best friend.
I like spending time in my mind. It’s a safe place. It’s fun. There’s tons of awesome stuff going on in there.
Today a friend told me we all have two bank accounts, one financial and one emotional. The reason most people struggle with money so much is that their emotional bank account is fundamentally broken:
- They can’t say no to their friends because they’re afraid of losing them.
- They can’t do what they really want because they’re afraid of peoples’ opinions.
- They can’t be alone because they’re afraid of the truths they’d have to face if they were.
When you realize the only person you really need to get along with is yourself, all of a sudden you don’t mind.
You don’t mind eating alone, you don’t mind seeing a movie alone, you don’t mind living alone and you don’t mind being alone. In fact, you just might realize that most of the time it’s the better choice, because…
99.9% of the people in this world won’t love you, understand you or believe in you the way you do.
That’s what makes writing sound like a perfectly fine Saturday night to me, myself and I.
Then again, my friends took this lovely picture of me after our annual reunion yesterday:
I guess even introverts go out sometimes. And there’s no excuse I have to make for that.
