INthusiasm

The deepest invisible driver of positive outcomes in your life is … your Enthusiasm.

And not “on and off” enthusiasm. Sustained and consistent enthusiasm.

“Love your life and life will love you back” to me is a profound Truth, expressing the value of enthusiasm.

I might add a couple nuances…

“Love ALL of life, and life will love you back.”

Which flipped means you hamper yourself to the degree that you don’t love your life, and all of life.

And another nuance I’d add…

I’m creating the word “INthusiam” to call attention to it being entirely an inner-dependent state. One that is not dependent on outer circumstances.

To go through life, successes and failures, with very little or no loss of passion… that creates INthusiasm.

To be grateful even for the struggles creates INthusiasm.

To love the challenge while you’re in it creates INthusiasm.

To deeply appreciate the opportunities that arrive, large or small, creates INthusiasm.

To celebrate yourself even for trying creates INthusiasm.

To love other people and love to spread happiness is a well spring of INthusiasm.

To be present to the wonders of life everywhere (like that small flower growing through the crack in the sidewalk) creates in you more INthusiasm.

To appreciate the everyday small things, like a small act of kindness from a stranger (or friend) creates in you INthusiasm.

And the hard one… To appreciate every difficult and shit thing life throws at you for the growth opportunity it gives you creates INthusiasm.

Now, all that INthusiasm is really just love of life. And all that felt love somehow comes back to you. As if life is a mirror. Or a dance partner. Or a parent grateful for your gratitude.

We should teach children that when you love life, life loves you back. It’s more important than math or science.

And then they can become INthusiasm Masters early on in their life. And they’ll grow up knowing that there is a real cost to all the times and ways we humans reject aspects of our life daily, judge them as not worthy of INthusiasm.

The opposite of enthusiasm isn’t negativity. It’s rejection.

Think about it.

If you’re not enthusiastic, you’re rejecting what’s occurring in your life. You are saying no to challenges, no to failures, no to other people’s successes, no to your own attempts, no to your slow progress, no to your very own self (… “I’m not good enough”…)

“Reject life and life will reject you back.”

Does that sentence scare you?

I think it clarifies.

As I reflect on my own history… It is always easy to see all the things I’ve not done well or smart – plenty of shortcomings from IQ to Talent to Business Smarts to Insecurities. But if I had to guess what the most consistent and beneficial thing I’ve done WELL, I’d say INthusiasm.

I’m easily excitable. And I fill my life with projects that excite me. I celebrate even small wins. Hard challenges diminish my INthusiasm, but only temporarily. While I’m failing, my INthusiasm sparks back up over something else that’s WONDERful – like the beauty that’s literally everywhere.

In part, it’s who I am. But also, I’ve cared to make it a discipline in myself. I’ve long valued weeding out the voices in myself that lack Inthusiasm. I don’t like feeling of lack of INthusiasm. When I lack INthusiasm, I feel alone, cut off, lackluster, purposeless, and dread.

Fortunately, INthusiasm is choice. Not a condition.

It takes cultivation. And discipline.

But so does rejecting life.

You had to cultivate lack of INthusiasm. And it was taught to you.

So since it’s a learned trait, you can unlearn rejecting life, and you can learn to love all of life, all of your life.

“Love your life and life will love you back”

Try it.

Love,
Patrick