The Case for Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is a springboard to fulfillment and high achievement. With it, you have the power to catapult yourself into success through the wild pursuit of your own curiosity.

Without it, your life and work become nothing more than a daily drudgery — a mediocre effort towards an outcome that has no personal value.

Photo Credit: marc kjerland

In other words, enthusiasm matters a great deal.

Charles Kingsley, the late historian, novelist, and priest, said that “We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”

I agree. In fact, having something to be enthusiastic about sits at the core of daily productivity and long-term goal achievement.

What it Means to Truly be Enthusiastic

Being enthusiastic is more than simply being energized (or caffeinated) — it’s a state of authenticity where you deeply care about your work.

As it’s defined, enthusiasm is “intense and eager enjoyment, interest, or approval.”

To truly be enthusiastic, you must be eager, curious, and passionate. Enthusiasm cannot be faked and no one can make you to exude this powerful emotion. It comes from within and it drives you towards a destination you really want to reach.

When you have something to be enthusiastic about, you have a reason to do work that others do not.

In turn, you overcome challenges that don’t even feel like challenges. You push yourself because it doesn’t feel like pushing. You fight because it feels great to fight.

And you achieve greatness because you’re working with the flow of your natural skills and interests, instead of attempting to crawl upstream.

Since enthusiasm really is a genuine eagerness about your work, you don’t have to exert extraordinary effort to gain extraordinary results. It really just comes naturally to you.

The Difference Maker

There is one key distinction about enthusiasm that I want to clarify. Enthusiasm is not necessarily an emotion that only applies to your life’s greatest passions like painting a mural, playing baseball, or drinking margaritas.

Enthusiasm can actually be a state of being. You can be enthusiastic about everything. Yes, literally everything.

That might sound far fetched, but think of it this way. Do you know someone who is always excited about what they are doing? It doesn’t seem to matter if they are on the beach during vacation, sitting through another meeting at the office, or taking out their trash, that ridiculous person is generally upbeat and just happy to be alive.

Honestly, that’s how I want to live and it’s why I place such a high value on enthusiasm. Seeing the world as a series of battles to fight is exhausting. Instead, using the power of genuine curiosity, you can can actually be enthusiastic about everything on earth.

Curiosity is the difference maker. Wanting to know more about how the world works, who people are and what makes them tick, and desiring to pursue your own potential — that’s what makes a curious and enthusiastic individual an authentically happy individual.

How to Be More Enthusiastic

I mentioned that enthusiasm is not something you can fake, however, it is a skill you can learn and improve on over time.

In my life today I am not genuinely enthusiastic about everything, but I do believe it is possible to reach that state of being. Because of that belief I am actively pursuing that potential by exposing myself to more that the world has to offer.

I have found that knowledge and personal experience are the gatekeepers to enthusiasm. If you want more enthusiasm, learn something new, do something you’ve never tried before, or put yourself into a situation that would otherwise never happen.

To be more enthusiastic, you have to be interested in life, how it works, why it works the way it does, and how you can interact with that world in new and fascinating ways.

I have found that this is best achieved when you attempt to care about life outside of yourself. Coming from a guy that has a fairly large ego (note the large picture of me at the top of this webpage), showing genuine interest in other people doesn’t necessarily come naturally.

So, I put myself in situations where I can learn and discover more about others. What seems to always be true is that the more I learn, the more enthusiasm (or genuine interest) I have about that person or topic.

After all, it’s hard to be genuinely interested in something you know nothing about.

The Energy Connection

It would be impossible for me to discuss enthusiasm without discussing energy because these two come as a pair.

When I focus on increasing my energy, my enthusiasm increases as well. When I go for a run I feel better, I want to do more, and I am more genuinely interested in engaging with life.

On the other hand, when my energy is low my desire to engage with the world is severely depleted. I care less and all I can think about is my own selfish interests.

That’s right, higher energy results in caring more about other people — at least for me. It’s a weird connection that I have noticed, but it seems to be true.

More energy results in more enthusiasm and more enthusiasm results in actively engaging with the world around you. It’s a marvelous thing.

Next Week

Next week on the blog I will be discussing the daily rituals of creative people.