Credit: Dreamstime.com
Some things are easy to fake. Interest, for example. Just nod randomly and say “Hmm, ya don’t say” every ten seconds while your sister describes every detail of her new all-goose-fat diet. Works like a charm. (The random nodding, not the diet.)
But enthusiasm—well, that’s another thing entirely. Enthusiasm is a really hard thing to fake.
That doesn’t mean it’s something you simply have or don’t have. It isn’t magically granted to some and not others. We’ve all spent some time being wildly joyful. Have you ever met a two-year-old who wasn’t?
Joyful enthusiasm is part of our original factory packaging. That two-year-old loves to get presents, sure, but she’d be just as happy playing with the wrapping paper for hours.
So then—what happens to us? We make a choice, that’s what. Some of us choose to continue to be in touch with our childlike enthusiasm, while others allow it to wither and go dormant.
Bad idea. Enthusiasm is as essential to life as food, water, and hot artichoke dip. (Hey, you’ve got your essentials, I’ve got mine.)
Enthusiasm is also the essence of success. Without it, all is mediocrity. Nothing great happens. That’s why one of the keys to a truly engaged and motivated workplace is enthusiasm.Keeping it alive is a moment-by-moment choice. Here’s how to make that choice, and keep making it, day after day:
• Remember that results flow from determination and enthusiasm. You always have a choice.
• Change your accepted beliefs about yourself. If you’ve always felt that you were a deadpan personality, decide to believe differently. If you think you’re not exciting, stretch yourself today to blow away your family and coworkers with your vivaciousness for something. Anything. Just decide to come alive. It IS a decision.
• Set yourself up for every experience as if it’s the first time you’ve done it. Have you ever lived vicariously through a four-year-old at the beach, or on an airplane? It’s all just so amazing in their eyes. And it should be in ours because they are right—it IS amazing!
• If pretending it’s your first time doesn’t do it, then pretend it’s your last. Watch a sunset and know it could be your last (because it really could). Have a conversation with a coworker as if it’s your last time to connect with a person on Earth, and you want to make it count. Dig into a project as if it will be your legacy.
• Make the choice to participate fully. For everything you do today, whether it is a conversation with a coworker, a friend, or a child, or doing a task, decide to “show up fully” and pour all of yourself into it. Listen like you’ve never listened before. Decide to care like you’ve never cared before.
Do this for a week and you’ll be a believer for life—and a far much better, more enthusiastic life at that.