SUMMARY 

• In this episode, I talk about the power of enthusiasm and how you can cultivate it through 3 simple techniques
• “Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it, stamp it with your own personality, be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The first technique to cultivate enthusiasm is to “act enthusiastically.” Strike a power pose. Stand up tall and straight. Shoulders back, chin down, smile. By behaving in that way, having that kind of posture, it gets us thinking in a more positive, enthusiastic way. We start to become what it is that we’re trying to be.
• The second thing that you can do to develop your enthusiasm is to flex your “what’s going well” muscle. At the end of every day, I just ask myself, “What went well today?” And I make sure I note all of those things.
• The third is to learn to say no. Think about the people, places and activities in your life that give you energy. Think about the people, places and activities in life that drain energy from you. Say no to those energy drainers. Say yes to the things that give us energy, because what gives us energy also helps propel our enthusiasm.
• Employ these three techniques to generate unstoppable enthusiasm.

TRANSCRIPT

Hey everyone, today I want to share a reflection on enthusiasm from Ralph Waldo Emerson. In his selected writings Emerson says, “Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it, stamp it with your own personality, be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” So today I want to take you through three simple ways that you can use to develop your enthusiasm.

The first thing that you can do is act enthusiastically. I know that sounds super simple, but sometimes the best things in life are super simple. There’s a story of a guy named Frank Betcher who played professional baseball. And he was essentially demoted into the minor leagues because his coach said he wasn’t enthusiastic enough. And so Frank made it his goal thereafter to just act as enthusiastic as possible because he thought that if by doing that he would become more enthusiastic. And sure enough, within a few years he did. He was able to return to the majors and made a lot more money. Now Frank’s career didn’t even last that long. I think he only played about three years in total, but he became an incredible salesman after his baseball career. And he attributed that to being able to show up with a lot of enthusiasm and project all of that energy and positivity that we associate with enthusiasm.

Another way in which you can act more enthusiastically is just through a power pose. So standing up tall and straight shoulders back, chin down, and by behaving in that way, having that kind of posture, it gets us thinking in a more positive, enthusiastic way. We start to become what it is that we’re trying to be.

The second thing that you can do to develop your enthusiasm is to flex your “what’s going well” muscle. Now, I do this on a daily basis and on a weekly basis. At the end of every day, I just ask myself, “What went well today?” And I make sure I note all of those things. It could be things related to my family. It could be things related to work. It could just be things that were in my thoughts or in my mind, but I just make sure I note those things. I put a little plus symbol in my journal and next to each little symbol, I write what it is that went well that day. I also do that on a weekly basis. So give that a try as well. Flex that “what’s going well” muscle and that will also generate more enthusiasm within you.

Last but not least to become more enthusiastic we have to learn to say no. Think about the people, places and activities in your life that give you energy. Think about the people, places and activities in life that drain energy from you. We want more of the former and less of the latter. So we need to say no to those energy drainers, and we need to say yes to the things that give us energy, because what gives us energy also helps propel our enthusiasm.

I hope you’ve enjoyed that. And if you head over to my website at ericpartaker.com, you can also subscribe to my weekly Peak Performance Insights newsletter.