Enthusiastic, For Free

You can work on something responsible. Keep a promise you made, serve the moment that’s in front of you, do the work that needs to get done. That’s the professional thing to do.

You can work on something that’s a little scary but aspirational. Something creative, something personal. You’ll be fending off your fears by facing your fears head-on.

You can work on solidifying your systems. You’ll gain the benefits of efficiency, down the line.

You can invest in longer-term bets. Give some of your time to places and causes for which you won’t see results for a long while, if ever. “We’ll see.”

You can give of your time, out of a heart for charity, because you’re human.

All of those activities take work. They’re effortful. They have a cost.

But enthusiasm is free.

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You can work on something for which you feel the vibe, in the moment, to work on. You get that energy for free.

You can work on pulling a string that you find interesting, running an experiment that you’re curious about, following a what-if, one extra step. That’s all free.

Like many things in life that you can’t maximize, you might not be able to follow your enthusiasm for entire days or entire weeks. But if you don’t indulge in your enthusiasm at least a little bit, you might, before long, find yourself disconnected, frazzled, stretched out, or burnt out.

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You can’t explain it, but you’re enthusiastic.
You’re not just optimistic, which is theoretical, you’re enthusiastic, which inspires an action.
You feel like it, you have the time, it’s going to give you energy…

All this, you’re getting it for free.