Many friends and students of mine have said to me that I am a very enthusiastic person. They are impressed with my enthusiasm as shown in teaching, speaking, writing, and many other things I have done.  Yes, they are right in making the comment. However, I am afraid they don’t know yet why enthusiasm has become such a distinct trait of my character. Now I want to tell you that I was not born with enthusiasm.  In fact, I have learned to become an enthusiastic person deliberately. After long years of persistent efforts, I have been profoundly awakened to the great power of enthusiasm.  The awakening has turned out to be a crucial turning point in my life. It’s my sincere hope that after reading the short essay about this sweet experience of mine, you would also expect to benefit more from the immensely beneficial power of enthusiasm. 

What is enthusiasm, after all? It is one of the most powerful and influential sentiments I admire. As Lytton put it, “Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm; it moves stars; it charms brutes.  Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it.” The roots of this word are “en” meaning “in or within” and “theos” meaning “God”, and consequently, if you are enthusiastic, you possess so much energy and power that you feel like “having God within you” or “being one with God.” Perhaps this is why Emerson said, “Enthusiasm is the height of man; it is the passing from the human to the divine.”

With enthusiasm, you are naturally passionate and excited enough to devote yourself wholeheartedly to whatever you do or plan to do. With enthusiasm, you will have sufficient power to get many things accomplished. You will have vital dreams and ideals; you will be determined to carry out your dreams or ideals or any plans with perseverance. Hence, with enthusiasm, we have all the positive powers at our command, such as confidence, earnestness, optimism, idealism, and even perfectionism. As a result, with enthusiasm, we can easily beat boredom, indifference, apathy, pessimism, defeatism, or any other kinds of negative and harmful attitudes or sentiments.

I think I am a very fortunate man for having completely realized the great value of enthusiasm.  I am grateful to this precious value because it has enriched and even beautified my life and career in many different ways. This is why I passionately wish to share with you this fantastic value.

Dear friends, if you want to achieve the optimum success in whatever you do, you must work with enthusiasm! If you are willing to offer the best services to people, you must serve with enthusiasm! If you desire to derive the most benefits from learning, you must learn with enthusiasm! If you want to live a most satisfying and significant life, you must live with enthusiasm!

When you have enthusiasm, you will try your best to overcome the vicious attacks of depression, failure, despair, or any sort of adversity.  You will be happy to bring the most heart-warming feelings to your relationships. When you greet people with “Aloha” enthusiastically just as I always do, people can immediately feel your warmth and genuine concern for them. When you speak enthusiastically, you can easily attract your audience’s attention and interest. You can thus deeply touch their hearts and impact their minds. You can greatly enhance your persuasion and add immeasurable weight to your verbal and nonverbal language.

Why? Because enthusiasm will inevitably inspire you to use the most appropriate and effective diction or body language, to deal with the most meaningful subject matters, and to deliver the most carefully organized speeches in a touching manner. As you can see now, enthusiasm has indescribably empowered me to write most earnestly this article about the lovely subject of enthusiasm. You can surely note that the magic power of enthusiasm has been generated from the bottom of my heart! You can definitely sense that under the influence of that power, I really care about the matter of writing this personal essay! Yes, you can understand thoroughly why I wish so strongly to share with you my absolutely firm convictions about the value of enthusiasm!

Therefore, dear readers, let enthusiasm help you create a new and brilliant life for you! When your heart is filled with enthusiasm, you can bring wonderful vigor and originality to your relationships with people, to your activities, to your future, and even to your whole life! Don’t hesitate to let enthusiasm change or revolutionize your life! Try to greet people with enthusiasm!  Speak with enthusiasm! Think with enthusiasm!  Listen with enthusiasm! Sing with enthusiasm! Work with enthusiasm! Attend every Toastmasters meeting with enthusiasm! Write every letter with enthusiasm! Live every day of your life with enthusiasm!  Above all, dream every dream and breathe every breath with enthusiasm! The truth is that enthusiasm is the most forceful and stimulating soul booster! Indeed, enthusiasm is the everlasting spring of energy and hope and inspiration and creativity for everybody! 

(Dr. Yu Yuh-chao, the chartered president of both Taichung Toastmasters Club and Chiayi Toastmasters Club, is currently a professor of the Department of Applied Foreign Languages, Takming College of Technology in Taipei.)
　

Yu Yuh-chao(余玉照)