Chapter 6
ENTHUSIASM FOR LIFE
It is fun talking to someone who is enthusiastic about something. They seem to have a zest for life. They sparkle.
Is enthusiasm genetic, something we have naturally? Or can it be acquired and developed? I believe it can be acquired and is a valuable quality that is worth cultivating.
Some people wake up in the morning draggy, and reluctant to get out of bed. One older gentleman who I asked if he was in good health replied: “Well considering my age, yes. But for me, getting out of bed in the morning makes the raising of Lazarus like a bad joke.”
However that may be, but I believe that you can wake up with the zest for life if you program it. What does that mean? Well, try it. Say to yourself before you go to bed, or during the night if you are half awake, that you will wake up full of pep and feeling a zest for life, looking forward to what the day will bring. For many people, it works. Maybe for you too, although there seem to be two kinds of people: the night people and the day people. The night people are wide awake and active right into the early morning hours, and usually sleep (if they may) late into the day; the day people, are alive from the start of the day to the evening; then like to go to bed early. Maybe this is genetic, or maybe it is a learned behaviour. I like to think it is learned.
I had a demonstration of the power of programming enthusiasm at a conference one time. It was "playtime" at an Open Space event and a lady got a group of us together and we sang this ditty in front of the whole group at the conference. It is sung to the tune of the camp song "If you're happy and you know it, Clap your hands!"
"I'm alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic
I'm alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic
I'm alive, awake, alert
I'm alert, awake, alive
I'm alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic!"
If I awake one morning and feeling draggy, I sing this ditty aloud a couple of times and it does prepare me better for the day ahead.
One of my early enthusiasms was work simplification. I was trained in the re-designing of work stations so that the simplest motions were used. I tried it out not only at work, where I was paid to do it, but at home and even in the simplest things I did. I tried to simplify the number of moves I took to get dressed. Which comes first, the socks or the pants? Then I tried to simplify setting the table for a meal. It was possible to set the whole table from only one side of the table if you had all the dishes and cutlery on a tray and had long arms!!
A friend asked me for some hints for giving a talk to a group of ladies at some particular function. So he talked to them about simplifying the household tasks, as most of them were housewives. Then he finished off by saying that sure, they would end up the day less tired, but then when their husband came home after a hard day at the office, they would be ready to go out dancing! Not good.
Then I moved on as my work changed and became enthusiastic about productivity. That is, productivity of various aspects of business. I gave speeches on it and worked on convincing others about how it would improve the economy. The theory was that reducing the labour costs of a job would lower the overall cost and in the long run generate more business.
After the spell on productivity I became a specialist and enthusiast for the concept of futures. That is the development of future scenarios of the world in terms of environment, over-population and resource conservation.
The next enthusiasm and concurrent with the concern for the future was the use of the computer. I became an addict from the early days, once I discovered all its amazing potential. I got a Radio Shack computer with 16k of memory and worked up to gigabytes. Now it is the Internet and all it can do that is all-consuming So life is so much more interesting, to one's self and to others, when one is enthusiastic. What is your enthusiasm?
"Most people live ..... in a very restricted
circle of their potwntial being."
William James 1842 1910