That Human Experience: An Overwhelming Sense of Enthusiasm!

I have long admired those who seem capable of expressing a huge amount of enthusiasm for whatever they are engaged in.

Alas, Not I...

I suppose I say that as someone who rarely feels a lot of enthusiasm for what I am doing; most of the time, my mind is more preoccupied with considering all the contingencies I need to have in place to make sure whatever I am undertaking doesn't end up in complete chaos.

Chaos definitely does not make me feel enthusiastic, on any level.

Which is not to say that I don't feel enthusiasm for things; I definitely do... but it is generally more along the lines of "cautious optimism."

Anyway, it got me to thinking about the whole notion of whether or not some people simply are inherently enthusiastic, or whether it's a learned response... perhaps based in having a proportionally large number of positive outcomes in their experience.

After all, our experiences do materially shape who we are, right?

Maybe this all borders on a bad case of "analysis paralysis," but on the whole I can state that my experience with things "turning out better than expected" is pretty close to... none at all.

Not saying that to be some kind of "Debbie Downer," simply relating a factual summary of what I have experienced... and not because I enter situations with ridiculously and unrealistically high expectations for how they will turn out. In fact, typically I keep my expectations quite modest.

You Are What You Believe?

Which brings me to that occasionally "delicate" topic of whether or not we "create our own reality."

It's a notion most people poo-poo away and attribute to the so-called "New Age Movement," but I believe it was US industrialist Henry Ford who observed — almost a century ago — "Whether you believe you'll succeed or fail, you're probably right!"

And then there are those of us who are perhaps characterized best by the "neutral" smiley... or, as I once saw it on a T-shirt: "Have a Day."

Much of the time, I'm pretty "enthusiastic" about simply making it through the day. Or, at least, I'm grateful for making it through the day without any great calamities. I'm grateful that my investments didn't fall off a cliff and go to zero. I'm grateful that my car didn't break down or have a flat tire while I was running errands.

I'm grateful to be writing this blog post on Hive, and that I didn't arrive here to discover a permanent error message.

Which, of course, is a far cry from those overly enthusiastic folks — God Bless them! — who are fully and totally convinced that Hive will go to $100 within a few years.

I hope they are right... but my sense of reality wonders what the hell they've been smoking...

Realistically Grounded...

Several decades ago, I was sitting in my therapist's office, reading a copy of a psychology magazine, and one of the "sidebar articles" was talking about a large-scale study, whish showed that somewhat pessimistic people were less likely to actually suffer from depression, while being more likely to be told (or perceived to be) that they are depressed.

Which, I suppose, is a fancy way of saying that being thoroughly anchored in "reality" may not be overwhelmingly enthusiastic, but at least it's not a condition you're likely to kill yourself over!

Ironically, that particular era of therapy in my life mostly served to underscore that there actually wasn't a whole lot "wrong" with me, and my sense of "alienation" was more a result of my actually accepting life "as it is," while being surrounded by people who were eternally caught in a cycle of trying to "make reality prettier that it really is."

Low Energy...

Generally being a "low energy person" definitely comes into play here, as well.

I simply never had a lot of excess energy to blow off on anything other than the essence of dealing with the task at hand! Most of those I have met who are filled with exuberant enthusiasm also tend to ne high energy people. They are the "Energizer Bunnies" of life!

And thank God for them! Life might be terribly boring if they weren't around to add their enthusiasm to the mix!

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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Created at 2023-05-05 22:01 PST
0821/2076