Be enthusiastic about anything

| Staff Writer

Presidents’ Day may have passed, but the spirit of Presidents’ Day lives on!

That might seem like a politically charged statement, but it really is not—for me, the spirit of Presidents’ Day has a lot more to do with infomercials and attitude than it has to do with presidential history or patriotism.

You just read two sentences that do not make any sense, so let me pause and explain myself with a story.

The year was 2007; it was Presidents’ Day. I was on vacation in Florida, watching a local advertising channel. On the screen was a man giving away small sums of money to live callers because of the holiday in some kind of sweepstakes. In retrospect I’m sure this was probably a scam, but at the time that went over my head. What stuck with me was the presenter’s enthusiasm. While giving away $30 to some random caller he would proclaim, “Celebrate! It’s Presidents’ Day!” He was so positive and so genuinely excited about this holiday. That guy’s attitude stuck with me. The rest of the day I acted completely without worry, remembering that “It’s Presidents’ Day!”

More recently I have tried to reflect on why this weird Central Florida sweepstakes infomercial has stuck with me for so long and why it brings me joy. I’ve come to realize that it’s enthusiasm, genuine unbridled enthusiasm, a feeling so few of us allow ourselves in this irony-poisoned world. It is tough to be unironically enthusiastic about things without feeling silly, without feeling like whatever it is that you enjoy is unimportant and not worthy of the feeling. Oddly, this random huckster on daytime TV has provided me with the solution: If you already know how inconsequential it is, the excitement is all the more effective. Consider laugh therapy—it is commonly known that if you make yourself laugh for long enough it eventually becomes genuine. Try it right now and I guarantee it will work. My contention is that excitement is the same. If a daytime TV advertiser can pretend for hours to be excited about Presidents’ Day, then you too can get yourself to be excited about something.

Enthusiasm is an important emotion to allow yourself to have; it is the first step on the path to passion. Many people live dispassionate lives, caring about little and being excited about even less. But passion drives all of the greatest achievements of mankind. Passion for discovery is curiosity, passion for love is romance, passion for victory is determination. More importantly, passion is a positive form of motivation. Many are motivated by fear of failure, by anxiety over the future, worry over deadlines—all extensions of stress which lead to miserable work and sloppy results. Meanwhile, if you find little insignificant things to excite you within whatever you have to do, everything becomes more pleasant and you become more effective. Get excited about cooking breakfast, savor the act of making your bed, find the small things you enjoy daily and exalt in them.

And if you can’t find those things to enjoy, then make them up. That infomercial presenter had me fooled for the last 14 years, so I am sure you can convince yourself. And if you fool yourself long enough, it might end up becoming real.

Sign up for the email edition

Stay up to date with everything happening at Washington University and beyond.

Subscribe