Motivation of the Day

"The real secret of success is enthusiasm."

~ Walter Chrysler

Enthusiastically Failing

In baseball history, there has not been a man strike out any more than Babe Ruth. Ninety-nine percent of all major league baseball players struck out fewer times than Hank Aaron. Thomas Edison failed over 14,000 times at perfecting the incandescent light... and that's on top of his teacher calling him a dunce. Albert Einstein flunked math. By age 40, Henry Ford was broke. At age 43, Vince Lombardi was a line coach at Fordham University. He went on to become one of the most respected football coaches in history. Abraham Lincoln lost his job, failed in business, and was defeated in eight different elections and nominations before being elected President of the United States.

Everybody, even the most successful people in history, have failed at some point. Some have failed more than others. The difference lies in how you handle those failures. If you let it knock you down and you do not get back up, nobody will pull you to your feet. But if you remain enthusiastic, learn from your mistakes and let it motivate you to try harder next time, you have no choice but to succeed.

Enthusiasm or Fuddy-Dud?

Who is more fun to encounter: an enthusiastic person or a fuddy-dud? Enthusiasm makes life more fun, and it adds meaning to activities and tasks. Test today's motivation on your kids, co-workers, spouse or friends. For example, if your child is struggling with learning her multiplication facts, it may not be fun for you to sit down with her and work on them. She may argue and complain. Now for the test: Try to teach her 6 x 6 by simply doing flashcards, having her write it over and over again, and any other traditional method. Move on to 6 x 8. Make it fun, exciting and enthusiastic. Dance around singing a rhyme of "six times eight is forty-eight!" See which one she learns better. Meanwhile, you will find that you are enjoying the task much more, too.

Enthusiasm is a choice. If you choose to be enthusiastic about a situation, you will truely become enthusiastic about it. Sometimes you may have to fake yourself into it (as our previous post on 06/07/11 taught), but you will not have to fake it long. Enthusiasm is contagious, and you'll be surprised at how easily you'll catch it from yourself.