Be Outgoing!

Sociable outgoing people get more out of life. They have more friends, and they live longer. Other people enjoy being around someone who is cheerful and high spirited. If you work at being extroverted, you will find your days more pleasant and joy-filled.

          It’s true that you have a genetically established basic disposition. It’s also true that social forces in our lives shape our personality as we grow up. But it is also true that we have the power to shape our own destinies. For we are not only the creatures of our social and spiritual world, but the creatures of it. 

We are not only the product of our past, but the builders of our future. We are not rigidly determined as absolute behaviorists would have us believe. The predisposition we bring into the world leave room to be influenced by our family background and childhood social experiences. They also leave room for our own efforts. You have the power to take action today in order to shape your life tomorrow.

          So work at being more outgoing, because to a great extent your feelings and attitudes will flow your behavior. Just because you don’t feel outgoing does not mean that you cannot act in an outgoing fashion. Nourish your happiness by changing your behavior and you will surprised at your feelings and attitudes will change, too. This may feel artificial at first, but your feelings will gradually change as your nothingness becomes, outgoing emotions.

          The great comedian Jimmy Durante(1893-1980) began his career alongside another great, the singer Eddie Cantor. When the two were singing and playing together in cafes, Cantor would encourage Durante to quit playing the piano and try something more ambitious on the vaudeville stage.

          “I know you want to be a piano player,” Cantor said, “but piano playing is going to get you nothing. You’ll be a piano player till you’re hundred years old. You got a look further than that. People like you a whole lot. So why don’t you get up on the floor and say something to the people? Make remarks while you’re playing the piano?”

          To this Jimmy answered, “Gee, Eddie, I couldn’t do that. I’d be afraid people would laugh at me.”

          All the same, Jimmy Durante took Eddie Cantor’s advice, and his large nose earned him the title the great “Schnozzle”. He became one of the great entertainers of the twentieth century because he decided to act more outgoing, even though he didn’t feel that way. Jimmy Durante became his true self by acting in a way he was not comfortable with at first.