I remember pulling up to the office in my college roommate’s Honda Accord — which, for some odd reason, had a complete home theater system installed on the center console. I’m embarrassed to admit that I was pulling up to a financial services firm while blasting the movie Boiler Room at 6 in the morning, talk about a stereotype. Something about Ben Affleck’s “ear to ear smile” speech was a great way to pump my 21 year old self up to make cold calls and learn how to sell over the phone.
However, I was displaying a high level of enthusiasm for a gig most people couldn’t succeed a few days at which got me on the fast track to running the entire program.
I would watch young people come and go, only being there to check in and check out — which, in that business, meant you’re expendable.
Although far from my calling and knowing it would be short term, I had decided at a young age that whatever I was going to do, I was going to go all in.
Land Of The Zombies
Walk around your local mall you’ll see most people have become real life zombies.
Low energy, no zest for life, everything seems robotic, boring and passionless.
I was at a concert recently and you’d naturally think that’s a place where people are going to let go and show some life — nope, they stood there with their arms crossed as their favorite artist left it all on the stage.
What’s missing from people is a simple lack of enthusiasm — which to me, is one of the most important traits in the human experience.
Everyone’s heard the quote that enthusiasm covers most deficiencies and it’s absolutely true.
Think about the last time you went out to dinner and the waiter or waitress was absolutely engaged on fire:
This likely increased your experience, raised the state of everyone at your table and you ended up simply wanting to give them a large tip — that’s the power of enthusiasm.
In this post, we’re going to go through 8 ways to ramp up your enthusiasm starting this very moment.
Do Things You Love
Every single day, do one thing you love.
It doesn’t matter if you have a full time job, a family to take care of and a ton of other responsibilities, do one thing for you.
It can be as simple as reading a few pages of a book, having a great conversation, being in nature for a few minutes, pick one and make it absolutely non-negotiable.
Action: Pick one activity you can do on a daily basis that you love and no one has to get you to do, plan it in your schedule.
Be More Curious
The other day I shot a video of how we’ve lost our flame of curiosity — what started as a wildfire as children is now a flickering flame on the verge of burnout.
Curiosity is directly aligned with your level of enthusiasm, if you’ve ever observed children, you get this.
Harness this power by being genuinely interested in life, asking deeper questions, immersing yourself in a new skill or simply looking up at the stars at night and wondering how this all happened.
This will begin to re-ignite your flame which will change the way you operate and see the world.
Action: Take a moment every day to be curious, this can be entering a conversation without bias or simply being truly present for a moment or even injecting some type of adventure into life.
See The Benefit In Every Situation
Complainers and negative people suck the lifeblood out of any enthusiasm.
They see everything as a negative and put themselves in victim mode which is not only a massive turn off, but is a black hole for any positive energy.
If you look back on your life on situations you once considered negative, it’s likely you now see them as a blessing.
- That time you got fired unexpectedly? It woke you up to a new, passionate career.
- When you got dumped for seemingly no reason? It allowed you to work on yourself and not cling to something that wasn’t going to work anyway.
When you see everything from a positive angle, you’re using the power of an abundant mindset which is associated with a high level of enthusiasm and is contagious.
Action Step: What part of your past are you clinging on to? Write it down and examine how this benefited you long term.
Surround Yourself With Energy
If you truly want to live a passionate, enthusiastic life you must surround yourself with like-minded people.
I don’t care how engaged or passionate you are, if I put you in a room with 99 people who are negative and lifeless, you may last for those first couple weeks.
However, when I check back 12 months later, you would have developed and been influenced to their energy because environment matters.
Look around your circle and see who’s inspiring you and who’s sucking all your energy and contributing to a negative worldview.
Action Step: Find people who are enthusiastic and share a common interest — make sure to hang out with them as much as you can.
Create Triggers To Pump You Up
I was on a podcast recently and I was asked:
Dude, how are you always seemingly on fire and inspired?
My answer was simple: I have trained my body and mind for years to get into this state on 85–90% of my days.
I’ve worked my ass off and there’s no looking back — and you can as well.
The key is to create triggers that put you into this state, such as:
- Intense physical training
- Being in nature
- Rocking out to music
- Listening to inspiring podcasts
- Having an amazing conversation
- Creating a morning ritual
…and more. This varies person to person, maybe the way you create your trigger is to wear your favorite outfit, or being creative.
Action Step: Find 3 triggers that naturally raise your enthusiasm and begin to harness them as much as you can.
Wherever You Are, Be Entirely There
Have you ever been in an amazing environment but your mind was in two places at once?
Maybe it was a stunning sunset or out to dinner with your best friends — you weren’t entirely there and thus felt like you missed out later on.
Presence fuels enthusiasm by harnessing the power of your five senses and being entirely there, dissolving the illusion of time and opening yourself up to truly connect and experience.
Most of us aren’t fully there when we experience life, our face is in our phones, on what bills we have to pay next and countless insecurities and doubts.
Action Step: Be aware of how you lose presence during experiences and put your phone in your pocket.
Appreciate Your Body
Your level of enthusiasm is directly correlated to the way you treat and nourish your body on a daily basis.
Everything we do requires willpower and energy — reading this right now is taking part of your mental and physical energy.
So there’s no surprise that most people are in a zombie state because of the sugar, processed food, low quality sleep and unbalanced hormones on a daily basis.
Action Step: Keep it simple, but focus on hydration, real food and getting one more hour of sleep at night.
Act As If
Lastly, take yourself mentally to a place where you are the enthusiastic person, you’re the one full of passion, you’re the one who attracts and connects other people.
Feels pretty awesome, right?
“If you want to be enthusiastic, act enthusiastic.” — Dale Carnegie
You can make this happen, but in the meantime, act as if.
Inject this energy into a conversation today and understand who you were yesterday is not who you are today.
You can change your mindset and behaviors at this very moment to become whatever you’d like to be.
Action Step: Make the choice to simply change the way you behave today, do one thing differently and inject enthusiasm into it.
Last Words
There are no downsides to enthusiasm.
It’s attractive, contagious, attracts opportunities, gets you remembered and can change your entire experience.
Sounds pretty amazing, huh?
Use the above to start injecting enthusiasm in things you do today and watch yourself not only grow but also experience a deeper level of fulfillment which is going to impact every area of your life.
