Today's Challenge:
"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." is a great line from Emerson. If there's no enthusiasm in what you do, it won't be remarkable and certainly won't connect with people on an emotional basis. But, if you put that magic energy into all of your work, you can create something that touches people on a deeper level. How can you bring MORE enthusiasm into your work? What do you have to think or believe about your work to be totally excited about it? Answer it now.
Today's entry:
Once upon a time, there was an enthusiastic boy. He woke up at 5am every morning, even though he was 4 years old and didn't have a job. His TV only had 3 channels, but he didn't mind. He happily watched whatever was on, even if it was Trapper John, MD.
On his first day of school, the boy dressed himself, made his own lunch, and enthusiastically waited by the front door. He soon learned that he was a year early for his first day of school, but he could wait – there were so many exciting things to do.
When school finally came, the boy wanted to learn about everything – except maybe geography. He drew cartoons whenever he could, ran recklessly at recess (with and without scissors), and he didn't even mind when his mom packed liverwurst sandwiches for lunch.
The enthusiastic boy became a bit of a class clown, and he loved getting a laugh.
Then came junior high, and with it a new currency: popularity. The boy looked a little funny and he was sometimes too enthusiastic, so he got laughed at. Suddenly, getting a laugh wasn't as much fun as it used to be. The boy learned his lesson, and he stopped being quite so enthusiastic.
The boy went to college, made new friends, and tried to find his enthusiasm. He caught glimpses of it, but it frightened easily and ran into the bushes. He kept his hopes up that it would come back, but he secretly doubted.
Graduate school was next, and the boy started to see new ideas, bigger than he had seen before. Sometimes, they were too big to think about all at once, but that made them even more exciting. He tried to turn the big ideas into big projects, but people told him "That's really exciting – don't do it!" Big ideas sometimes failed, and failed ideas didn't get published.
The previously enthusiastic boy was also stubborn, so he finished school. He had heard about something exciting called the Internet, so he went to work for a man in a warehouse – the man called it a "start-up". Starting up things sounded like fun, so the boy gave it a try. The boy learned a lot, and some days he felt almost enthusiastic.
One day, as sometimes happens in stories, the boy met a girl. Being with her made him realize that his work had become little more than a job, and a job just wasn't enough. So, the boy married that girl on a sunny June day and he left his job after 8 years to start looking for his enthusiasm again.
The boy had a lot of ideas, and he wanted to tell people about them. Without his enthusiasm, though, he mostly just stared at his shoes and mumbled. He thought that no one was listening, but it turned out the words just weren't reaching their ears. He kept trying, though, and little by little, people heard him.
Soon, the boy realized he had learned more than he thought, and when he talked about it, people actually listened. Some of them laughed, but in a good way. Some walked away, but that was ok, too. He looked up from his shoes for a moment and saw a piece of his enthusiasm, so he picked it up. It felt strange but familiar. It was the first piece of many.
Five years later, when the boy almost remembered what it meant to be enthusiastic, he had a baby girl. At first, the baby girl didn't do anything, but the boy loved her anyway. Then, the girl started to look around, and she was enthusiastic about everything she found. She smiled when she saw him in the morning, and she laughed at his games, no matter how silly they were.
The enthusiastic boy remembered what wonder was, and he promised never to forget.
