Enthusiasm- Makes All The Difference

Enthusiasm – Makes All The Difference

We have just enjoyed watching the wonderful Olympic spectacle in Beijing and it was fantastic to watch the myriad of emotions of the athletes both when winning and losing.

Each athlete was different in appearance and attitude; some were aggressive and others had a more laid-back approach.  Some who were determined to take home a medal and others were just delighted to have reached this level of competition; the memory of having competed on the world stage enough to have given their life some significance.

But they did all possess one thing in common and that was ENTHUSIASM. They were excited and keyed-up sufficiently to give their particular event 120% effort.  The winners all were focusing on winning, whether quietly inside their hearts or bravely enough to proclaim their dream to the media.

There is the very rare occasion when someone wins accidentally; when the other competitors crash or break a mast and the tail-ender rushes past to claim the medal.  I wonder if these people have the same pride in their win than those who reach the winning post by their own effort?

In life generally, and in business particularly, the common denominator of real success is also ENTHUSIASM.   Very few people become successful by accident. To be successful requires specific goals, a specific time and a dogged determination to succeed.  These attributes are welded together with ENTHUSIASM.

The word ENTHUSIASM comes from the Greeks. They saw a person who was displaying ENTHUSIASM as someone possessed by fire, some one who generated heat and infected others with the fire in his belly.

Below is a short piece that I use in Attitude Alteration workshops and it is designed to be read aloud.  Feel the words, add emphasis and emotion and you will find that your ENTHUSIASM is growing and you too can feel the heat.

READ ALOUD

"This guy could sell snow to the Eskimos." "He would sell his grandmother if he could get away with it."

We've all heard someone described this way. And whoever said it probably believes it. They have just met someone who radiates and infects those around him with “belief”.

Is this person a confidence trickster or a liar? Or is he someone fired with the power of enthusiasm?

“ENTHUSIASM SELLS”: it sells ideas, products, beliefs, ideals, concepts and commitment. It is the engine of commerce and change.

Sometimes we meet someone who is so fired up and confident in what they are saying that they create a desire in others to get some of this heat … this intoxicant that lifts them from the mediocre to the brilliant.

We know politicians who have had this power; not always for the good of mankind, but people who have used this power to change the world. Would Hitler have turned ordinary, law-abiding people into race-hating individuals without the power of enthusiasm?

Would Churchill have rallied Great Britain to stand firmly behind him in the face of a huge and powerful war machine without the fire of his enthusiasm which was stimulated by desperation? Definitely not.

Do you get stimulated by a boring, dull, conservative, bland person regardless of the truth of what they say?  Or, do you just fall asleep in apathetic disinterest?

WAKE UP! THIS IS THE BEST! JOIN US! ACT NOW! NEVER BEFORE! NEVER AGAIN!
FANTASTIC! GREAT! STUPENDOUS! UNBELIEVABLE!

These are the words of an enthusiast. They are not whispered, as if in apology, but shouted for all to hear. Conviction, belief, undoubting; there is no room for doubt or hesitation in these rare and infective people.

Why is enthusiasm so rare? Why are there only a few of these true enthusiasts?

Is it fear. The fear of embarrassment, the fear of nonconforming, the fear that they may be wrong, that they will not be believed, that they will be laughed at or ridiculed.

Enthusiasts are brave, they are confident, they have convictions and they have a passion that they want to share. They are optimistic, positive and persistent. They persevere in the face of adversity.  They are winners.  They are leaders.

Be one. Stoke the fire. Be alive. Change the world …

CSL MACKIE