| Remember your very first day on the job? Your | | | | are choosing mediocrity. It's really that simple. |
| shoes had a shine like the tiles on the Space Shuttle | | | | Sure, there are plenty of reasons to curb your |
| and the crease in your slacks could have diced celery. | | | | enthusiasm. But there are just as many reasons to |
| The air was somehow fresher, the birds chirpier. You | | | | find it again including celebrating your incredible good |
| had been hired. You'd been given a chance to excel, | | | | fortune. In the process you can make that fortune |
| a chance to make a difference. | | | | even better. |
| Now contrast that with this morning. | | | | Here's How to Find Your Enthusiasm |
| Are you motivated to wake up every morning and | | | | Step 1: Start with the fact that you're not dead yet, |
| go to your job with full enthusiasm? After a while, | | | | that you were born at all, that you have a job, and |
| most people end up making one compromise after | | | | that compared to a lot of folks, you have a pretty |
| another until they've resigned themselves to | | | | darn good job. |
| mediocrity. It's darned hard to keep that first-day | | | | Step 2: Now take a close look at the circumstances |
| buzz going. | | | | of this good job you have. Write down your five |
| BUT...there's no reason you can't choose to recover a | | | | biggest complaints and spin them into positives. For |
| good measure of that first-day feeling. You can | | | | example, "My boss micromanages me" can be |
| motivate yourself to strive for excellence, and put it | | | | reframed as "My boss cares enough about me to |
| to good use in the service of everyone whose lives | | | | step into my work when I need help." |
| you touch on a daily basis. And, you can love your | | | | If you've truly committed to finding your first-day |
| job again. | | | | buzz again, you should be an awful lot closer to it |
| It's all about making the choice to do it. | | | | now than you were ten minutes ago. |
| Why You Need to Get Motivated, Find Your | | | | All this rethinking and reframing has removed a HUGE |
| Enthusiasm, and Love Your Job Again | | | | energy drain from your life - one you were probably |
| Have you ever met a two-year-old who wasn't | | | | unaware of. It takes massive amounts of energy to |
| enthusiastic? We come prepackaged with it. And | | | | continually reinforce your own sense of victimhood. |
| then... | | | | Excellence is MUCH less expensive. Now that you feel |
| What happens to us? | | | | lucky instead, what on Earth are you going to do |
| What happens is that we make a choice. Some of us | | | | with all that energy? |
| choose to make the effort to stay in touch with our | | | | How about playing the Big Game you signed up for? |
| inner enthusiasm and love our jobs. Others find | | | | Now, you just filled yourself up with a lion's share of |
| reasons to lose touch with it - boredom, | | | | this precious thing called the human spirit, and it will |
| responsibilities, challenges, fatigue. | | | | not invest in mediocrity. So play the meaningful, |
| But here's the problem: Enthusiasm is the lifeblood of | | | | bighearted game you always dreamed of playing, and |
| all success. Without it, nothing great happens. If you | | | | leave the mediocrity to others. Get motivated and |
| choose to lose touch with your inner enthusiasm, you | | | | start loving your job again. |