Every time I play fetch with Nutmeg, she inspires me to be passionate–about something, about anything!
This dog will do anything to get you to throw that ball one more time.
Watch 30 seconds of dog passion!
How different would life be if we could get this excited about something as mundane as a yellow ball! But let’s face it–there isn’t much about our daily lives that inspires this level of enthusiasm.
Here’s an interesting concept–you can fake it ’til you make it. Yes, if you just fake being enthusiastic or excited about something, you will begin to genuinely feel that way.
When I used to teach the Dale Carnegie Leadership Course, we would do a drill with class members every now and then. Everyone had to stand and say, “ACT enthusiastic and you’ll BE enthusiastic.” We would repeat that 7-8 times, adding hand gestures and upping the level of animation in our voices each time. You could literally see the ENERGY of the room transform. It was incredible!
Give it a try today. If you can’t get genuinely excited about something, just fake it for about five minutes. Fake the enthusiasm. Act it out until you start to genuinely feel it. It works–I’m as serious as a dog chasing a tennis ball!
If the idea of faking enthusiasm still seems out of reach for you, test my theory by typing a 3-4 sentence note in the comments below about how excited you were to read this blog today. Totally gush, fake it all!
I’ll be interested to know how you feel when you are done!
