I'm about to sell you on the values & necessity of ‘enthusiasm’ in a person’s life. But, all of my words will be wasted, if the instructions don’t clearly spell out the need to ‘put the plug’ in the bottom of your tub first.

Enthusiasm is sometimes one of the most difficult commodities to sell to others. Sometimes, people don’t even want to be ‘cheerful’ much less enthusiastic.

They wouldn’t take enthusiasm from you even if you were giving it away. It’s for sure they’re not going to listen to you when you ask them to exert effort to produce it. You might as well try selling ‘bull elephants’ to parakeet lovers.

I realize ‘today’ may be one of those times for you. That’s o.k. At least read the words & store them away for possible future use. Remember: "Bull elephants are often used as tractors in Thailand." They lift heavy loads, they pull cars out of the mud & accomplish other minor miracles in exceptional situations.

You still can’t see yourself using an elephant in the future, can you? Good. I’ve made my point. Some people will never see themselves as becoming enthusiastic individuals. You can probably think of 6 people like that. Maybe 13.

That’s okay. I’m not going to sell an elephant to everyone I meet, but I can convince someone that:

It Really is Possible To Live a More Enthusiastic Life!

Enthusiastic people often make more friends. Enthusiasm opens the door to better jobs & greater promotions. Enthusiastic people make more sales & more money. Enthusiastic people are more enjoyable to be around. There's great value in having enthusiasm.

I know, I know - some people were born with a bubbly personality. Others lived in families where enthusiasm was as common as breakfast cereal in the home. They lived around it, breathed it, ate it & it became a part of their nature.

But, what about the rest of us unfortunate people? Some of us were born in times of war, depression & personal tragedies. Our parents were ‘under the gun’ with poverty, pressures & private disappointments.

There’s no way they were going to wake up every morning singing:

Life is good, life is great, pull out the stops, let’s celebrate!

Somebody pulled the plug on their enthusiasm & somewhere along the way you bought into their erroneous recipe for success which says:

Always pull the plug before running bath water!

Worry, anxiety & fear will drain off enthusiasm quicker than water will dry in the desert. Inferiority & insecurity will put the brakes on your buggy every time. How can you ‘accelerate with enthusiasm’ when you're dreading the next step in life?

Boredom, monotony & drudgery will sap your strength & drain off energy. They deflate your tires, just before the traffic cop says, "Keep it moving folks, keep it moving." You then suffer the humiliation of being the center of attention when you don’t want to be.

Everyone knows ‘you are the old stick-in-the-mud’ who is slowing things down. But, you can’t help yourself. You just don’t have the enthusiasm you need.

16 people on the committee want to spend a $1000.00 on making popcorn balls for the Halloween carnival. Your doubts & reservations put a damper on their excitement. They think there will be a $700.00 profit on the venture & you think they'll lose $500.00 instead.

Doubt, uncertainty & negativity open up the hole thru which enthusiasm is quickly drained away.

These & many other ‘thought processes’ & attitudes are the enemies of enthusiasm.

Hey! I’m not trying to depress you. I remember the first time I heard someone say, "It takes money to make money." My melancholy mood got even more sour when I heard that. Why? Because I didn’t have money. I had never had much money. I had a poverty mentality.

Over the years, I struggled to make ends meet & fought diligently against debt, debt & more debt. I opened a savings account 2 or 3 times in life & closed them almost immediately.

It seemed impossible for me to save anything. How could I ever ‘have money to make money’? But, there is nothing impossible in life, it simply hasn’t been done yet, that’s all.

One day I read a little pamphlet, written by Norman Vincent Peale. It was on enthusiasm. I’ve never considered myself to be a ‘totally negative nerd’, but I asked myself, "Am I enthusiastic about life?"

I knew I wasn’t. Even on good days there was a ‘subtle melancholy’ which rode just under the surface in my mind. I would ask myself why I felt bad, because there was no need to feel bad at the moment. But, it was ‘just there’ day after day after day.

There was something in life that was keeping me unhappy. What was it? I couldn’t put my finger on any one cause, so I didn’t know what to do about it.

Dr. Peale put out a "book" on enthusiasm & I remember reading one phrase: "Even if you don’t feel enthusiastic, act as though you are!" He went on to say that a person could start behaving as though ‘Life is great!’ & pretty soon they'd begin to believe it.

Eventually, they could even start ‘feeling great!’.

I’ll never forget my deep inner reaction. I thought, "I can’t do it. I can’t go around faking enthusiasm. There's too much, sin, sickness, misery, heartache, tragedies, troubles & distress in the world for me to go around acting like everything is great."

I admitted that I was basically a serious minded person & had an aversion to lightness, triviality & mere social chit-chat. Everywhere I went, I would zero in on people’s problems, trying to help them out. They would unburden all kinds of horrible feelings & experiences on my listening mind.

The hopelessness of some situations was absolutely depressive.

During that time my mind was always tired. I could sleep 8 hours a night & still walk around with a basic tiredness all the time. I could eat right & exercise & that still didn't help. I think it was because I concentrated so much on all of the "negatives" of life.

I worried & fretted about seemingly unchangeable situations in my life & family. Round & round my thoughts would go, without coming up with any major solutions. On top of that, I struggled to solve the problems of everyone around me.

How can anyone cultivate enthusiasm in the light of all this? I didn’t try. I just sort of let myself be swept downstream w/the general flow of negative public opinions & private problems.

Somewhere along the way, I accepted the fact that I didn’t invent this ‘dumb, stupid world’. I decided I wasn’t guilty of starting wars & creating famines & spawning hurricanes. I accepted the fact that I was never going to be some glorious world savior.

Reality told me I couldn’t stop all traffic accidents, prevent all murders or alleviate all pain. Common sense lets me know that a depressed person isn't going to cheer up anyone.

I narrowed my focus. I decided to be a light & a blessing in my little corner of the world. Even if the whole world is plunged in darkness because of a computerized, electrical blackout - candles can still burn. No matter how tiny my sphere of influence is - it's going to be a positive influence.

I'm going to accomplish the good I can, right where I am, in any way that I can, for as long as I can.

Candles don’t last forever. How much longer can I last? A year? Four years? Ten? Who knows? I just know there is a ‘wick of life & light’ on the inside of me. It goes to the bottom of the candle. It'll burn until the end, no matter when that is.

Candles can be carried from room to room & from place to place & be used to light many more candles. But, hopefully, one candle can be used to light a hundred candles before it goes out completely.

Darkness has no power to quench even the tiniest bit of light & even a small light can make a difference in the dark. My enthusiasm is going to burn brightly & affect the people around me wherever I go.

I'm not a bubbly, energetic, ball-of-fire enthusiast. My enthusiasm is more of a quiet, optimistic & hopeful attitude. At the right times, I can laugh, joke around & be a royal cut-up! I sometimes have a happy, energetic zeal.

But, no one can be enthusiastic 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It just doesn’t work that way. Even the circus clowns have their times of sadness & crying.

But, I believe it's possible, to increase our level & degree of daily enthusiasm. No one ever changes easily or quickly. Personality changes come in bits & pieces, little by little. So where do we start? How do we begin?

1. Thank God for each new day. Thankfulness cuts through negative thought patterns which have the power to drain away our enthusiasm for living.

2. Count your blessings. Each time you want to complain about a bad situation - think of 6 good things that you have in life. Be grateful for those things. Think up 6 new things each day. 6 physical blessings. 6 family blessings. 6 environmental benefits & pleasures.

Verbally express your gratefulness to someone. Talk about the good things of life. Mention the blue sky, the blooming flowers or the interesting benefits of rain (on a rainy day).

The feelings which go w/such thinking & conversations is never thought of as ‘enthusiasm’. Enthusiasm seems to be ‘more than that’, & it is. But, atoms make up molecules & tiny molecules are the building blocks of greater things.

Enthusiasm starts w/the molecules of thanksgiving, gratefulness & appreciation.

3. Focus on the good, minimize negative reactions to the bad. Talk yourself into accepting what you can’t change. Emphasize your ability to cope w/heat, cold & all kinds of adverse situations.

4. Hope for the better! Hope that things will improve. Remind yourself that nothing in this life can last forever. Think of things that you can do do make circumstances even a slight bit better. Dare to depend on others to help you cope with present problems. Dare to believe someone else may be able to come up with plausible ideas which you haven’t thought of yet.

Hope never gives up. Hope doesn’t just lay down & do nothing. It's never apathetic. Even if you're being swept downstream & can’t fight against the current, hope keeps looking for a bend in the river & a chance of being washed up near the bank or close to a low-lying tree limb.

Hope keeps it’s eyes open, so that no opportunity is missed by negligence & blindness.

5. Enjoy the little things. Maybe you can’t buy your wife a dozen red roses. Pick her 6 wild flowers & hand them to her in love. It isn’t flowers she needs or wants. It's a sense of knowing that you love & care that's important.

Enjoy the cool breeze & the blue skies - on your way to see the dentist. If it's going to hurt or be uncomfortable, don’t let it hurt until you get in the chair. Why ruin the hour-long drive because of something that's going to happen later.

We waste so many thousands of hours of our life, hurting before it’s time to hurt & worrying about things that'll never happen.

Enjoy what you have - no matter how little it may be. The best meal I ever ate was ‘a cold tater down by the railroad tracks’. I had been hitch-hiking & hopping freights. I was hungry & I ran across some bums who shared their meager meal w/me.

I savored the taste of that one cold tater - instead of thinking about the apple pie & ice cream that I didn’t have. I created a good memory which is still with me to this day.

Those tiny tricks of the trade don’t produce enthusiasm, but they do drive off the rats which gnaw away at our chances of becoming enthusiastic.

He who doesn't prepare for success will never succeed & he who never prepares the way for enthusiasm will never have it. A great enthusiasm - later, is created in us little by little in the smallest sort of ways - now!

Even a forced smile is important in this scheme of things. It's a scientific fact, that if you choose to smile when you don’t feel like it, that one little act can effect your mood. Choose to do so again & again throughout the day & it'll make a difference in your life.

Don’t believe me, just because I said it. Experiment. When you're by yourself & feeling blue, choose to smile. Finally - be around enthusiastic people. Their moods are contagious.

I’ve never heard of anyone writing about enthusiasm in this way. But, I know I must convince you that enthusiasm is possible. Maybe you can’t make high payments for a car & pay for it in a year or 3 years.

But, if you could pay for it over a period of 10 years, you could afford to drive the same car as the man who paid cash. Believe it & then cultivate the patience which will allow you to keep making small down payments on that which you wish to someday - own!

Enthusiasm is for you!

Spanish Translation