The Best Way To Become Enthusiastic About Everything You Do?—?Even The Things You Hate

Genuine, unrestrained enthusiasm — that’s the fuel for success.

It’s integral to greatness.

What do you want to become? What do you want to be known for? What goals do you want to accomplish? Whatever your answer, you won’t get there unless you’re energetic and passionate about the pursuit and challenge.

The problem, of course, is maintaining enthusiasm — especially for projects and tasks that you aren’t inspired by — is hard. Sometimes, when you’re sitting at your desk or in your car on your way to work, getting yourself excited about the day ahead can seem outright impossible.

The key, I believe, is to remember that enthusiasm is not something anyone was born with. It’s something you grow over time, something you cultivate constantly.

A power plant doesn’t produce energy on its own, after all. It creates energy by way of regular, effective effort.

The best way to create enthusiasm in your own life is to frame small habits as steps to long-term success.

Or, in other words, to always look upstream.

That email you’re answering? These hours you’re putting in? That extra mile you’re running?

They aren’t individual journeys — they’re stepping stones to something much greater.

The small tasks and habits that are sometimes hard to get yourself excited about are bricks making up the foundation which will empower you in the future.

And speaking of looking ahead…

You need to have a compelling future.

For this strategy of always looking upstream to work, you need to be genuinely excited about the goals and future you’re working toward.

Your future, in other words, must be genuinely compelling.

If your goal is merely to retire and not have to work hard any more, well, that will prove less effective.

There’s a difference between working to eliminate a present you don’t like versus working to actualize a future that inspires you.

What inspires you will, of course, look different for everyone. I know for me, I want to change the higher education system. I want to set self-learning as a new standard. I want to empower those who, like me, might not have had success in the classroom, who were maybe even told that they wouldn’t amount to anything, but who have something important: guts, tenacity, courage.

That’s the future I’m working towards — that’s what fires me up when I get out of bed in the morning: helping people.

But you don’t just need to set compelling future goals for your professional life; you need them for your personal life, too. I know for me, what excites me every day in my personal life is my desire to be a great dad for my kids. And not only to be a great dad, but to also provide them with the skills and mindsets they need to thrive.

That’s why, after I finish writing this, I’m going to take my son to football practice. It’s why, during that practice, I’m going to be helping my daughter hone her softball swing.

Part of the reason I do those things is I never lose sight of what’s required to build the future I want for me and my loved ones.

Energy, enthusiasm, and inspiration comes from this conscious compulsion.

Once you have a compelling future, write it down, and remember it every single day.

That leads me to my final point. Identifying your goals is important, sure, but it’s not enough.

You also have to remind yourself, every day, what your goals are and what exactly you need to do to accomplish them.

That’s how you’ll manufacture the energy and enthusiasm you need to attack those smaller, maybe less exciting tasks, to abide by the habits you’re trying to cultivate.

Set your goals, and think about them every day. Envision them in vibrant color. Whatever they are, make yourself hungry to achieve them.

At the end of the day, that constant, unwavering awareness will become a kind of fuel — the fuel you’ll need to continue powering your personal factory of energy and fire.