Supporting and Hating the Lockdown. An Introverts View.

I fully support the lockdown and other measurements to reduce the spread of Coronavirus. I started to wear a mask as soon as the virus began spreading in my country. I studied statistics at the University of Vienna, so I get why even imperfect measures on scale can have a big enough impact. And being a growth guy, I get exponential growth, yet I am usually on the side of enabling and accelerating (traffic, user, revenue) growth.

Though there is understanding and support for the lockdown, on an emotional level, I hate the lockdown. It has to do with how my personality works.

Two kinds of people

You can always categorize everything into two kinds. Things that fulfill specific criteria. And things that don’t.[1]

There are people who do not mind the lockdown. Yeah, they worry about Coronavirus, but they think the lockdown is” chill.” Some even like the new” Entschleunigung,” the deceleration of society. Others were annoyed but now made their peace with it. These people are not me.

And then there are people who hate the lockdown. Where the lockdown slowly grinds away self-esteem and motivation. Step by step downwards into a state of” Sh*t it sucks!!!!” day after day. That’s me.

A model of my personality.

I see myself as an introvert who can do a great extrovert. My natural state is introvert, but I can push myself into being an extrovert, enjoying to interact with other people in meaningful ways. Both states have their up- and downsides. I like both sides of the coin.

Additionally, I need to challenge and prove myself.

So my personality has

• introvert
• extrovert

tendencies — as has everyone else.

My” me” resides in the following states.

• Comfort-Zone
• Learning-Zone
• Panic-Zone

Combining these two models is this — awesomely PowerPoint-style drawn — model of my personality:

The black hole at the center is…well…a black hole. Some call it depression; some call it despair, death, or the “no future.” It’s a state when my reclusive introvert tendencies pull me in so hard that I need tremendous effort to escape it. Not a nice place to be.

Having talked a lot with other people, this is not something very special. A lot of people have these reclusive tendencies with a dark place in the center. For them, this concept is not hard to explain. Some don’t, they hardly ever get it.

Maybe I am a little bit more extreme than others, but most of us have to balance depressive tendencies with our zest for life, our inner introverts with our inner extroverts. You can not be happy all the time. Nor is this a desirable goal.

The Learning-Zone is where I like it the best. Taking up a challenge. Analyzing it. Figuring out a way forward. Succeeding. Failing. Learning.

The Panic-Zone is when I can not figure out a way ahead. When I end up there, I need support so that I can expand my Learning-Zone to encompasses the current challenge.

As I like the extreme, and I am deliberate ignorant of my limitations. I often navigate the trenches of learning and panic. It’s a lifestyle choice.

The Comfort-Zone is where I have everything under control. No challenges. Just a formula that needs to get applied. As I am a natural introvert, most of my Comfort-Zone is in the introvert modus. Shared with family and close friends.

I navigate these ground rules of my personality quite successfully over the years. With good times and bad times. Sometimes reflecting and recognizing where I stand, taking appropriate action to be where I want to be. Yoga, surfing, traveling, running a company, public speaking the forces that keep me in a dynamic equilibrium.

The Lockdown

The lockdown moved me from Panic-Zone

• What happens to my business?
• What happens to my customers?
• How do I keep my family safe?

to Learning-Zone

• Ok, I can keep my business going.
• Pretty much everything can be done remotely with my customers.
• Stay indoors. Keep distance. Watch your health.

to Comfort-Zone

• Netflix
• Cook
• Zoom

quite fast.

The Horrors of the Comfort-Zone

Most of my Learning-Zone overlaps with my extrovertism. I challenge myself and learn the most when I meaningful, challenging interactions with other people. In the state ordered Comfort-Zone of the lockdown, there is just the fallback to introvertism.

This is ok for some time, but the slow pull of the black hole keeps pulling the introvert faster and faster into depression. Being aware of this, I know what action to take, to push myself into the other direction: challenging myself, learning. Which is all in my extrovert area. But everybody else is in lockdown, too. So….

I hate lockdown.

I hate something I fully support. A.k.a. the strong feeling of being stuck. Of not growing.

The solution

The solution for me is to find things that are in my learnings zone but still can be done with the introvert mindest.

For me, this is writing. A profoundly satisfying activity that makes me order my thoughts and creating something I am proud of. Then putting my thoughts out there without direct feedback. To people, I don’t know and can most of the time not directly interact with.

• Writing is the introvert activity that is in my learnings zone.
• Publishing what I have written is an activity that borders my Panic-Zone.

Jackpot, this is where I need to be.

All while I still hate and support the lockdown.

Is there a takeaway for you?

Don’t know. This is a pretty personal piece. Way out of my Comfort-Zone. I wrote and published it for me, not you ;)

If you want a takeaway, if you are an introvert struggling in the current situation, then challenge yourself. But not with the things others care about. Challenge yourself with one thing that you care about. And then do it repeatedly.

About the Author

Franz Enzenhofer changes the internet since 1998. Over his career he worked with startups, market leaders, startups then market leaders, market leaders that reinvented themselves as startups, state-owned companies, freelancers, concert halls, cities, political parties, betting companies, NGOs, economic chambers, TV stations, family-owned small businesses, Fintechs, old school banks, national and international newspapers and news agencies, media houses, media conglomerates, sports teams and more. He worked with organizations in the US, UK, D.A.CH, Ireland, India, Thailand, Peru, Colombia, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Gibraltar, Sweden, Cyprus and more. He cares about scaleable, systematic Growth. He is known for his No B*llshit SEO. He does Growth.

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