Living Life With Enthusiasm

As young man, Winston Churchill was a profound underachiever in academics. This is interesting, because in so many ways he was a genius, for instance, as an adult he could quote verbatim whole pages of material he had read 50 years previously. Even as a youth, he was able to memorize a ten thousand stanza poem.

Churchill later grew into a world class author and historian, a truly excellent amateur painter, arguably the best orator of his age, a cunning fox of a politician and a visionary leader of the free world, all different passions. He embodied enthusiasm.

There is a key to understanding his academic failure. He once said, “They kept asking me questions about what I didn’t know, as opposed to what I did know.”

Really, we all only get enthusiastic about our own agendas. Once Churchill was free to write, speak and act upon what he did know and had a passion for, he went non-stop for the rest of his life. But when he was forced to respond to what others imposed, he was lackluster.

What are you passionate about?

I am quite frankly dumbfounded by the number of people I meet all over the world who are apathetic and bored. In a world of great books, magazines, things, people, loves, work, food, music, film, art, philosophy, politics, religion, children, and the Internet; people are bored?

How in the name of God, literally, can people be bored? There isn’t enough time to study and understand, let alone do all that life has to offer. Your task is to identify ten things that turn you on. Then prioritize them.

Twist the agenda imposed on you so that you get to study, communicate and do what you passionately care about. I am not suggesting that you should never compromise. Life is a compromise. But you must have a base from which you are compromising.

It’s like the poor soul who says, “All I want is a friend.” The response is, “Well, what do you want to be friends about?” People who have friends have music friends, another set of political friends and a different set they go fishing with.

I don’t fish. Yet I enjoy being in the company of someone who can enthusiastically tell me the beauties of it. I know he or she is a kindred spirit because he or she understands joy. And I know that anyone that anyone who is passionate about fishing could get interested in my passion, even if just for a moment.

Grasp your dreams and twist the world’s agenda to fit your passions, and share your enthusiasm. It’s infectious. Boredom is a killer, but the world will buy joy gladly.